Warning: this story is a little dark.

I'm still not happy with the chapter divisions...

			    Sailor Moon: Crystalbrittle
				  by Ken Arromdee
				      Prologue

Our story begins in Crystal Tokyo, the city that lasted nine hundred years.
It was a place undreamed of in earlier times, a place where the world "evil"
never needed to be spoken, where nobody was ever sad or miserable and where
crime and poverty were nonexistent.  The city began its life at the start of
the 21st century, when a young woman with below-average grades revealed herself
as Neo-Queen Serenity, the one destined to push aside the petty hatreds
between people and unite every last soul in the world.  At least, that's how
the story goes.

It was hundreds of years afterwards, in the year 2903, and until the Black
Moon attacked it seemed like the kingdom would last forever.

Someone jerked Neo-Queen Serenity awake.  She yawned and muttered back,
"Mamo-chan, I'm really tired after last night", and pulled her blanket over
her head, pushing the interruption to the back of her mind.

In reply, a firm hand grabbed her shoulder and threw her right out of her bed
and onto the floor.  She tiredly opened her eyes, rubbing them, as the blur
above her resolved itself into a human form.  "Oh.  Good morning, Rei-chan",
she said apologetically.

"Wake up, Usagi.  Your schedule is big today and I've personally decided that
I'm going to take charge of it", said Rei as the queen of the world nodded
and listened.  "My whole life is dedicated to helping and protecting you, and
I'm going to make sure you stay helped and protected."  Rei glanced at Mamoru
and sighed wistfully a bit.

Neo-Queen Serenity thought about this, then leapt to her feet hastily, caught
by a sudden panic attack.  "It's 10:30!" she exclaimed.  "And you're right!  I
have to make a speech, and then a pilgrimage to the moon, and look for someone
to teach Small Lady, and by that time the new Sazae-san episode will...."

Rei shook her head.  "Usagi...  face it.  Small Lady's going to stay the way
she is forever.  You can't teach her everything that you or I could learn."
She pointed at the clock which she had insisted on installing above the bed
despite the Queen's feeble objections that putting it in the throne room made
more sense.  "And your speech...  is in TWENTY MINUTES!"

"It's what?" she shouted.  "Oh, you're right!  I mean again.  Mamo-chan, wait
right here."  The queen looked at the rest of the bed, only to notice that the
king was not, after all, sleeping.  He had already gotten dressed and had been
patiently waiting there for who knows how long.

"I'll be right back, Rei", said the queen.  She rushed to a door and opened
it, then slammed it shut again after seeing several figures outside in sailor
suits.  Finding the door she had meant to pick, she opened it and pulled a
small wand with a gem on top, off its resting place on top of a shoebox.
"Moon power", she exclaimed, "turn me into a well-dressed queen wearing
_everything_ that looks good!"  Her nightgown disappeared and was replaced by
an elegant queenly dress and tiara, and her hair had formed itself into
another day's worth of odangos.

"You look wonderful, Usagi."  Rei gave her a warm hug and continued "Now
go.  Ami has your speech all ready.  Haruka's going to drive us all."

Her highness smiled widely.  Such a loyal group of friends.  The start of the
twenty-first century had been a dream come true for her.  She saved the world
one last time, and evil would never be a problem again except for a few small
pockets of trouble.  She married the man she loved, and they had a wonderful
child.  She had kept her friends for hundreds of years, and they'd all do
anything she asked them to, though she'd never ask them for anything too
extreme.  They loved her, all the world loved her in fact.

Neo-Queen Serenity walked through the door, followed by Rei and King Endymion.
The rest of the inner Senshi bowed down as the king and queen emerged,
between their thrones.  Haruka and Michiru were there too, and Haruka shook
the queen's hand.

"So, er, how's everyone?" asked the golden-haired queen.

"We're fine", answered all the inners, almost in unison.

"Us too", answered Haruka and Michiru.

"Oh, how's Miranda?"  asked the queen.

"She never learns", answered Michiru.  "She's constantly rude and she never
gets things done.  I wish she could be more like Small Lady."  (Small Lady
smiled at her mother, who picked her up and hugged her.  "Good morning to
you.")

"Seen Pluto around?"

"It's funny, but no", said Haruka.  "But you know her job is very busy."

"As long as she doesn't do anything I forbid her to do.  There are reasons,
you know."

"Well, if you see her, tell her the alarm clock she gave me is really useful.
Especially the snooze button."

Haruka and Michiru giggled slightly at that.  That was their queen.  Still a
kid after all this time.

All the Senshi exited the palace and took their seats in the royal limousine,
waiting right outside the front door.  It was an impressive sight, made of
opaque white crystals and big enough to hold everyone.  As the crowd of six
Senshi parted to let the king and queen through first, Ami handed a stack of
papers to her monarch.

"It's your speech, Usagi.  Read it and change whatever you think is needed.
It's not that long."

She took the speech from Ami and sat down with it and her moon pen,
occasionally marking some sections.  Finally something came up that she just
couldn't handle herself.  She'd have to ask Mercury, no matter how
embarrassing it might be.

Neo-Queen Serenity, queen of the world and wife of the prince of Earth, ruler
of the solar system, pointed to a spot halfway down page one and asked "Oh, by
the way, Ami-chan, how do you pronounce this kanji?"


                                   Chapter 1

Miranda was the most wanted child in the history of the world, thought
Michiru.  It had taken only a little lab work and one egg cell from each of
them for Michiru to give birth to a child, thirteen years ago, that would truly
be theirs in a way that Hotaru never had been.  She was unique, except for
Small Lady, since all the Senshi were so devoted to the Queen that they had
little time for trivialities like marriage and children.  But Haruka and
Michiru were devoted to their kingdom...  and to each other.  And they wanted
their child to be just like them.  So what went wrong?

As Haruka drove Michiru to the palace annex, where they both lived, she soon
spotted the car passing her in the other direction.  It looked like a normal
thirtieth century car, which is to say only cosmetically different from a
twentieth century one, but there was one difference on this one; the license
plate was green.  The mark of an extrasolar ambassador.

Of course, there was no reason any of them would come _here_, thought Haruka.
It wasn't hard to guess who drove _this_ car.  Not ambassadors, but a child
of two.  Seiya Hikaru.  The boy (which is the gender Haruka usually thought of
him as) was there to put the moves on her daughter.  Hikaru was from an alien
planet; his loyalties were different from those of people from the solar
system, and Haruka and Michiru sternly disapproved of any contact between
them, and people like themselves.

Haruka opened the door and entered alongside her partner.  "Miranda", she said
to Michiru, and the single word was enough to tell her just what she had been
thinking and what Haruka meant to do next.  Michiru nodded, in the wordless
communication that hundreds of years of togetherness had brought to them.

Michiru took Haruka's hand in her own soft fingers, and they walked together
to Miranda's room.  Haruka opened the knob and looked down at their daughter,
who was sitting on her bed, short green hair a bit askew.  

She flinched as her parents entered.  They must have found out somehow.  Maybe
she could pacify them, maybe there was something she could say....  "Mama,
papa...  I didn't..."

Haruka refused to raise her voice, instead saying "You did" with narrowed
eyes and little emotion.  She continued.  "Hikaru was here, and I know it.
There's no way you can hide from me.  We passed his car coming in."

Haruka raised her hand as if about to strike Miranda and she drew back an
inch.  "I'm sorry, papa.  She wasn't here for long!  I just wanted to..."

"You _want_.  That's what's wrong." said Haruka.  "You don't have any
discipline.  You're going to learn to do what's good for you, no matter what
it takes."

Michiru waited for Haruka to stop, and then started speaking, Haruka's talk
seguing smoothly into hers.  "Now that you've finished chatting with Haruka
about that", added Michiru, "you can go on by showing me how your violin
lessons went.  You haven't been able to play a single tune with any
competence.  I expect better from you.  We both do."  Haruka nodded in unison
with Michiru.

"Open the closet door", said Michiru.  Miranda got up and reached for it, and
then Michiru slapped her.  "Faster", she said, showing no anger on her face,
only calculation.  Michiru pulled a musical score from the closet, and held it
up in Miranda's face.  "Go ahead.  Play", she demanded.

Miranda looked up at her mother, hoping for a shred of sympathy, and answered
"But I'm only thirteen...  this is too complicated...  it's too hard for me.
I can't."  But when she looked above the score into her mother's eyes, nothing
even close to sympathy appeared in that icy blue expression.

"You can't", said Michiru with firm disbelief that those words were true.
"You can't.  When I was only a year older than you are now I was already
playing professionally.  You most certainly can."

As soon as Michiru stopped, Haruka began speaking, as calmly as Michiru.  "You
also got a B last week in history.  There's no excuse for that at all.  Your
mother and I got at least A's in all our classes, all the time.  We _both_ had
full-time jobs as well as our classes, and we did our jobs so well that we
were _famous_.  And we were also caring for a child, Hotaru, full time, and we
lived on our own, which means we had an apartment to maintain, a budget to
prepare, and we did everything ourselves.  And we fought monsters, too.  We did
_all_ of this and we did it so well that we still had plenty of time for
ourselves.  Oh, and we were always polite, too.  So don't get smart with us
about how we're telling you to do the impossible."

Haruka and Michiru each said their particular transformation phrase, and
were almost instantly in their Senshi uniforms.  Miranda's heart pounded,
knowing what was going to come next.  Michiru moved her arm aside and let
Haruka, who was already drawing her sword from the nothingness where it
resided, walk in front of her.  Haruka hefted it so as to expose the flat of
the blade and swung it at Miranda.  When Miranda tried to dodge, Michiru moved
forwards with practiced skill and gripped her shoulder and arm, refusing to
let Miranda avoid getting the punishment that she deserved.  A punishment not
in the name of the moon, but in the name of her own best interests.

"_This_ is for disobeying your parents and seeing Hikaru", said Haruka.
Miranda screamed out in pain as the sword hit her.  It didn't cut; but it was
heavy, and it hurt more than anything else in the world could have at that
time.  Haruka swung the weapon and hit her again, in the stomach, hard.  A
moment later, Miranda clutched herself and fell down, nearly vomiting.

Michiru motioned to Haruka, while explaining in her cool clear voice why it
was necessary for Haruka to beat her with the flat of her sword.  "And _that_
is for failing your violin lessons.  You're never going to make anything
of yourself if you don't learn."  Haruka swing the weapon into Miranda's side,
and more pain welled upwards as it worsened the bruise from where Haruka hit
her the previous day.  Miranda screamed and screamed.

"Please", sobbed Miranda, "Mama, papa, don't you love me?  Stop it, please."

"It's _because_ we love you that we have to teach you a lesson", said Haruka.
"Don't think that we like doing this.  It's our mission, as parents, to
raise you properly, and we're going to do whatever it takes to complete our
mission."

Michiru nodded to her companion, wryly smiling at her, after which gesture
Miranda's screams became louder.  The girl's obviously faking half of it,
thought Michiru--they hadn't even hit her a second time yet.  "Even the Queen
needed it once.  After the Tomoe business we hit _her_ to be sure that she was
suited for the job.  And don't you dare tell us that we don't love our Queen
and the realm which she rules."

Miranda just continued crying and yelling.  "This is wrong!  You're hurting
me!"  Didn't they care about her at all?

"We're going to do whatever it takes for this...  mission", answered Haruka.
"Even if it hurts you."  She turned and looked at her partner, who continued
the thought.  "We've made a vow to each other.  When we helped save the world,
we had to be willing to let people get hurt or even die to do it.  This is to
save _you_.  You're getting off easy.  Now, are you going to stop seeing
Hikaru and are you going to do what we tell you to, with no backtalk?"  When
Miranda didn't immediately respond, Haruka put the sword away and aimed a kick
at her, just like she did to Usagi centuries ago.  This time there was no
Silver Crystal to interfere.

Miranda instinctively raised her right hand to stop the blow, but Haruka's heel
drove that hand back into her chin, and nearly into her eye.  She cried in
pain again, a trickle of blood running from the edge of the heel abrasion in
her palm.

Crying and shaking, Miranda summoned the courage to throw a punch at Haruka,
the terror of the moment overruling the sure knowledge that if she struck
back, she would face much worse later.  But after the centuries of training all
Senshi had had, a blow from one weak thirteen-year-old was as useless against
them as one from an infant.  Haruka sidestepped and effortlessly caught
Miranda's punch in both hands.  Michiru looked to Haruka, and through gazes
they arrived at a wordless decision.  It was necessary to get stricter today.
Michiru turned to face Miranda again, held out her hands, and shouted "Deep...
submerge!" sending a wall of water at her ungrateful daughter.

Miranda smelled the moisture on her face and felt the impact, screaming anew
when she was thrown back and a dresser knob buried itself into her back.  She
sobbed again, half from the pain and half from this constant treatment from
people who were supposed to love her.  And remembered something that Hikaru
had tried to teach her to do.  For the first time, for the first time in her
life, it worked, her stress and her pain carrying herself through.  Whispering
"Miranda power, make up", she transformed.  The power was inside her, had
always been, even though the other Senshi used pens and gems to release it,
and Miranda's clothes thinned and formed into a more stylized, lightweight,
green leather top and miniskirt.

"Miranda shatter!" she yelled, raising her hands to throw energy at her
parents in instinctive reprisal for the force unleashed on her, energy fed
by the hurtness inside her that encompassed years of bruises and cuts and
sometimes worse injuries.  Haruka and Michiru, expecting no serious
retaliation, were completely defenseless against this attack and never knew
what hit them.  When the dust cleared, the door was ajar, the violin
splintered, and both her parents were lying by it unconscious.

Miranda collapsed on her bed, gathering her breath and rubbing her bruises, and
trembling with fear at what might happen when her parents woke up.  Finally she
made her decision.  Opening the laundry closet, Miranda grabbed several large
bags, and rapidly stuffed them full of clothes and as much else that she could
fit in there.  Miranda tied them as well as she could and hefted them; her new
Senshi form had greater strength and could carry them almost effortlessly.
She quietly spoke the word "Goodbye" and left the palace annex, never to
return.


                                   Chapter 2

"Just look at them", said Rubeus, staring out the window of his ship at the
glittering metropolis on the shores of Japan.  "Just look at them.  They threw
us away, forced us to find whatever home could take us, in the name of purity.
But now we're back.  After centuries of humiliation from being driven off by
Neo-Queen Serenity, we're back."

The attack had to be fast, thought Rubeus.  Earth had no defenses, no defenses
except one, and what a one that was: the Queen, and her King, and their
daughter, and those who protected them.  They were tremendously powerful,
especially the Queen, whose worshippers believed she could even recreate the
universe.  But no matter what the Cult of Serenity thought, no matter how much
they fancied themselves as being born from the stars, they were only human,
and they could make human mistakes.  If the Black Moon could succeed in their
plan, victory would be theirs.  And then, they could go back and change things
so that they never were driven away from the home that was theirs by right....

The weather in Crystal Tokyo was clear.  It was always clear, except when it
rained in the early morning hours, just long enough to nourish the city's
vegetation.  But the nearly cloudless morning sky was speckled with
interruptions, gleams of light that were approaching spaceships.  Omens of
what was to come.  The inhabitants of the city, though, the few who still
looked up at the sky, ignored the omens and continued to go about their
business of peace and tranquility.  But soon, the ships could no longer be
ignored.

Esmeraude waited in orbit, checking her viewscreen, until the face of Prince
Demand flickered in.

"You, Esmeraude", it said, "will be arriving at this location."  An image of
the Church of Serenity appeared on the screen.  "The Queen is worshipped here.
Those Crystal Tokyo people think that she's semi-divine.  She 'saved' their
whole world...  from us!  And she recreated the universe.  What is a deity
without a creation myth, after all?  Enjoy yourself, Esmeraude.  Show them what
good Serenity's protection really does them."

Esmeraude's anger burned within her, more than it had for hundreds of years,
as she recalled the events that drove refugees to the Black Moon.  Sailor Moon
gave her enemies one choice: be purified, and become a loyal subject of Her
Majesty, or leave.  Leave the world that gave them birth and lose almost all,
or stay and lose themselves.  So they left, and made a bargain with the dark
forces of Nemesis.  Not because they wanted to, but because there was no
compromise; no other choice.

Esmeraude landed on Earth in a beam of black light, right in front of the
steeple.  The people of the city looked at her curiously, not even considering
the possibility of a threat.  When she began to throw handfuls of objects
around her, most passersby just watched, as if she was a street performer, or
a vendor.

"Run in fear!" she cried.  "I've come to bring an end to your Crystal Tokyo!
Come out, droids!" Esmeraude gestured, and the objects she threw began to
writhe and enlarge, as if alive.  They formed themselves into humanoid shapes,
feminine in imitation of her own, with violence in their eyes.

The people scattered in all directions, many into the church.  It didn't help.
One man knelt in front of a statue of Serenity and started praying, only to
have a droid blast it out from in front of him.  The droids tore apart the
paintings of grails, and crosses on the moon; they smashed a half dozen
plaster Cauldrons to smithereens.  "Destroy everything!" commanded Esmeraude.
"Destroy everything that is Serenity's."

                                *   *   *   *   *

Cooan landed, not near a church, but near a museum.  This too, was full of
icons to Serenity, pictures of the wonders that her subjects all thanked her
for.  A comb that had once combed Venus's and Serenity's hair.  A replica of
the coffin in which her human brother, not unaging like her, was interred.
Cooan's own batallion of droids razed the building to the ground and then
spread out, sending panic through the city as they followed Cooan's command,
"Destroy it all!  Wipe out everything that is the Queen's!"

A droid hurried towards Cooan, one of her earlier ones.  This one was shaped
like a human female, but its skin was shiny purple and its hair and what little
clothes it had seemed to be made of leaves.  "What is it, Droid Plum?", Cooan
asked her servant.

"Two Senshi." said the droid.  Droids didn't speak much, at least not hours-old
droids.

"Oh, are there?" replied Cooan.  "Where, may I ask?"

The droid pointed to a faraway road where a motorcycle was rapidly riding off
into the distance.

Hmm, thought Cooan, maybe that droid was right.  Those two figures did look
like Sailor Senshi wearing helmets.  Cooan boarded her spaceship as the figures
zoomed away, and easily overtook them from the air.  She transported down
directly in front of the motorcycle's path.

The driver, a taller woman with short, light-colored, hair, stopped her vehicle
at the sight of a woman appearing in front of her path.  She whipped out a
weapon that resembled a short, curved, sword, and waved it menacingly at Cooan.

"You're Sailor Uranus", said Cooan.  "And that", she continued, pointing to
Uranus's partner, "must be Sailor Neptune.  I never expected to run across the
Senshi already."

Uranus held the sword up menacingly at Cooan while shouting threats.  "You!
You're attacking the Earth.  No _wonder_ our daughter attacked us."

Strange, thought Cooan.  They were confused about something, and blaming it on
her.  Or maybe not so strange; it was typical of the Senshi to treat evil as an
external force.  It would never occur to them that bad things happened because
of any other reason.

"You must be taking her for your own purposes", said Uranus.  Her partner,
Neptune, continued the thought.  "Tell us where Miranda is, now."

Cooan had no idea where this girl they were looking for was, but there was no
reason to disabuse them of their ideas.  "It's no concern of yours!" she said.
"This is her business and my business.  It isn't yours any more."

                                *   *   *   *   *

Throughout the city, the destruction continued, as the forces of Esmeraude and
Cooan and the rest of the Black Moon family went on a rampage.  Finally, news
reached the Inner Senshi in the Palace.  Neo-Queen Serenity sent them all out
into the city to quell the violence.  She hadn't had to do that for hundreds
of years, and being alone without her friends nearby frightened her, but it had
to be done.  At least her husband and her daughter were still there.

Minutes after the Senshi disappeared into the city, black beams of negative
energy shot out of the sky.  But they weren't coming from the ships, or from
the minions in the street; they came from the invaders' own home planet.  The
black planet Nemesis that approaches the inner solar system only every
thousand years.  And they weren't aiming for the city, but for the palace.
Serenity didn't figure it out, but the attack on the city had been a diversion,
to separate the Senshi to keep them from being a unified fighting force.

The pink-haired princess ran away, as a black beam hit only a few feet away from
herself.  "No!" cried Usagi.  "Stay here, Small Lady!  Please..."  Usagi ran
after her daughter.  She tripped over a hunk of rubble and fell, landing
directly in the path of a ray.  Her daughter cried, and ran off.

The King grabbed his wife and rushed her out of the palace, as everything was
destroyed.  Safe...  no, she was safe from the collapse, but she was hurt,
badly hurt by the rays.  And what about Small Lady?

And then, the invaders began dropping bombs.  They roared out of the sky and
hit, exploding in poisonous green clouds.  The King of the Earth motioned
towards them, attempting an attack, but as he gasped out the words, he inhaled
a lungful of the poison.  The world spun around him and he fell.

Each Senshi, battling a member of the Black Moon out in the city, saw the
catastrophe.  Beams of darkness hit the castle.  Huge slabs fell from the
towers, the ceiling caved in, and the walls began to collapse.  Spaceships
buzzed the palace, dropping their cargo of deadly gas bombs on it.

"Oh no!" cried Mars.  "It was all a distraction!"  She ran back to the palace
and saw all the others approaching it too, from different directions.  They
all entered, almost at the same time, running up to the barely conscious body
of the King, and the prone form of their Ruler.

"They're alive..." said Mercury as she inspected them.  "But Serenity's hurt.
Very badly hurt.  And Endymion can hardly take any more of this.  We may have
no choice...."

Rei nodded sadly to Mercury and the others.  They all knew what to do.  All
four Senshi gathered around their Queen and King, even though they had to come
so close that the deadly rays fell upon themselves too, and shouted "Sailor
Planet Power!"  The remaining crystals of the Palace responded to their call
and their energy.  Crystal erupted from the foundations and entombed them all
right at the moment that they fell.  They and their Queen and King would be
all safe for the moment; they wouldn't get any worse.  Safe, but helpless.

Small Lady, luckily avoiding the worst of the attack, ran crying through the
palace.  Suddenly a figure appeared in front of her, dressed in a black tuxedo.
"Papa?" she asked.

"We can be saved", said the transparent figure.  "One chance...  down the hall,
get the Silver Crystal...  go to the twentieth century..."

Small Lady obeyed, running off.  She touched the beautiful gem and disappeared
with it....

The command went out from Demand to withdraw.  The operation was a success.
More than just a success, since they had disabled the Queen and all the inner
Senshi.

Cooan, still arguing with Haruka and Michiru about why Miranda should stay
with her, snapped her fingers and vanished into the sky.

And then, more columns of black light from Nemesis hit all areas of the city
at once, making it a wasteland full of crystal shards and sand and blood and
bones.  Humans died like flies; Haruka and Michiru lasted much longer, but
in the end there was no place for them to run.  As the low-level energy from the
Silver Crystal that kept the weather perfect gradually dissipated, the
the long-suppressed forces of nature returned to the city with a vengeance,
scouring it with cold winds and ice.  A few hundred thousand survived.
Millions died.  Among the frozen bodies were two wearing sailor suits and
tiaras, who never claimed to be perfect, always acted like they were, and
turned out not to be after all.


                                   Chapter 3

The oldest teenager in 30th century Japan was Urawa Ryo.  Most of the world's
population were granted long life by the Silver Crystal.  Some lived to
200.  A number to 300, and there were one or two who reached the ripe old age
of 400.  And of course, there were the Senshi, living goddesses who grew to
adulthood and remained that way forever.

Urawa Ryo was different, though.  Not only had he lived much longer than
any normal person, he hadn't aged a day since the year 1995.

Urawa stirred in his sleep, and his heart pounded.  He awoke and jerked himself
upright in bed, crying.  "So many people..."

His wife Yumeni woke up beside him and rubbed her eyes.  "You must have had a
bad dream, Urawa."  Yumeni was young-looking.  Not a teenager, but then she was
even older than Urawa, yet had retained every single bit of her youth.

Urawa looked around the room, reassuring himself as much as he could at the
sight of every intact object.  His wife put her arms around him.  But nothing
could shake the feeling of doom.  "It was a dream, Yumeni-chan...  but..."

"You mean you _predicted_ something?" asked Yumeni.  "You haven't predicted
anything more than the coming of Her Majesty's tax collector in a long time."

"It's...  Yumemi-chan, it's the city.  They're going to destroy the city.
I don't like Serenity that much, but nobody deserves this.  We have to do
something!"

"Wait...  who?  What?" asked Yumemi.

"Nemesis", answered Urawa.  "When Serenity purified the villains when forming
Crystal Tokyo, she sent away everyone who refused.  They went into space,
and no doubt she assumed they were going to die.  They didn't die, Yumemi-chan.
They're back, and they're going--"  Urawa trembled a bit.  "They're going to
do as much violence to everything as Serenity did to their friends' minds."
Yumemi's eyes slowly widened as she listened to Urawa.  Her own near-psychic
abilities gave her a good taste of just what Urawa experienced that was making
him feel this way.  Urawa continued, "You know how you say you don't like
taking out the trash because the incinerator has a view of Crystal Tokyo...
in two days there won't be a view.  Or a city...."

"We have to call the Palace", said Yumemi.  "Even if..."  She shook her head,
speaking as if to an invisible man.  "No.  You stupid Senshi.  Don't!"

"Yumemi-chan!  What's wrong?  Did you sense something about it?"

"We can't warn them!" exclaimed Yumemi.  "The best that can happen is that we
won't get through.  And the worst is that they'll get suspicious.  They've
spent nine hundred years doing nothing but protect their Queen.  Protect,
protect, protect.  They gave up all semblance of a normal life to do that, and
they don't even _remember_ how to relate to anyone except themselves.  If we
get through at all, Serenity will use the Silver Crystal and look into our
minds just to be sure.  And then....  they could do a _lot_ to us if they
don't like what they see."

"We have to, even if it's risky", answered Urawa.  "We have to save as many
people as we can, somehow.  Call the Palace and leave temporarily.  They won't
find us here for the next few days, and then they'll have other things to
worry about."

"But where can we go?" asked Yumeni.  An idea came to her.  "I know.  We can
talk to Saturn.  She's not so far away, she doesn't speak to the other Senshi,
and maybe she can do something to help."

Urawa shook his head.  "It won't work.  It's not going to save the city.  I
can see that.  We have to do whatever we can, though."

                                *   *   *   *   *

Yumeni punched a number into the phone and watched its screen while listening
to the line ring on the other end.

A female face appeared on screen.  Short, dark haired.  "Hello.  Gally's
residence."  From the background, she seemed to be a bit over five feet tall.

Yes, that was Saturn.  Yumemi immediately recognized her.  "Hello...  please,
listen to me.  I know your name isn't Gally", said Yumemi.  "It's Hotaru.  And
I know who you are.  We need your help.  There's going to be devastation, and
you're the only one who can help right now." said Yumemi.  Saying all of that
was a calculated risk, but necessary.

"Who are you?  And what are you talking about?"

"My name is Urawa Yumemi and this is important.  You're Sailor Saturn.  In a
day the Earth is going to be attacked by the Black Moon.  They're going to
destroy the city.  We need your help to help save as many people as you can.
My husband can see the future and I can find the truth in things.  We know
who you really are, and we also know what's going to happen.  Millions of
people will die!"

The woman seemed to consider it.  "If I was this person you seem to think I
am, there's nothing I can do about it.  Worlds die, worlds are reborn.  The
people think that Crystal Tokyo will last forever, but it won't.  Life is a
cycle.  Destruction and recreation."

"There _is_ something you can do!", exclaimed Urawa, turning the camera towards
himself.  "Please, listen to what me and my wife are telling you.  I don't
believe in fate...  I think one person can make a difference.  You should
believe that too?  Even if you can't save the whole city, you can do something."

The disguised Saturn thought it over and finally answered.  "I'm afraid you've
got me there.  Yes, I'm Saturn, and yes, I'll help you.  I feel that I should
be there.  But no guarantees about how much good it will do in the long run."

Urawa thanked Saturn.  He put the phone down for a second and dialed again,
leaving a message for the Queen.  She didn't have as many layers of advisors
and assistants as royalty once had in Earth's history, but she did have an
answering service that was no doubt very good at screening out crank calls.
But like he told Saturn, they _had_ to at least try.


                                   Chapter 4

It was a bright sunny day, like almost every day was in Crystal Tokyo.  Urawa
and Yumemi stood in the busiest downtown city block they could find, and looked
around at everyone.  None of the people around them knew what was going on,
but they soon would find out, the hard way.

Urawa felt like shouting "Your world's going to end!  Come over here if you
want _any_ chance at all!  Or you're going to die, the flesh will be blasted
off your bones, everything around you broken to bits!"  Sometimes predicting
the future was like that... bringing knowledge of certain, unavoidable doom
and giving him only extra days of lonely suffering for him and his wife to steel
themselves for what they knew was going to come.

No, thought Urawa, I have to get ahold of myself.  We're going to save as many
people as we can.  Yumemi and me are here, Saturn's in hiding and ready....

Black rays suddenly came down from the sky.  But they were aimed at the palace.
They weren't hitting the city.  Not yet, anyway, thought Urawa.  The people
around him began to look around, puzzled at what was happening.  Some began
praying.  Urawa watched dumbfounded.  Didn't they understand?

A sound to Urawa's left startled him, and his gaze travelled up to the sky,
wondering if the beams of darkness had begun their deadly descent towards the
city proper.  But the sky was still clear.  "Excuse me, young man?" said a
voice.

Urawa looked at its source.  A middle-aged woman, trying to lecture him?
"Please don't stand over there.  You're in people's way.  And I almost tripped
over your box," she said.

"I'm not a young man", replied Urawa.  "And pretty soon it's not going to make
any difference what...."

There was a piercing screech, and the sky filled with shafts of darkness.
Urawa's skin began to itch and the buildings started to tremble.  Then Saturn
stepped out into full view.  "Silence wall", she shouted.  She pointed her
glaive into the sky, and Urawa heard a more localized trembling.  A horizontal
wall of force, covering more than two city blocks, formed, deflecting the
awful black rays away.  People just a short distance down the street began to
collapse, spitting blood, and their skin burning.

It went on for nearly fifteen minutes.  Saturn braced against a tree, sweat
pouring off her brow and knees trembling as she kept the rays away.  She seemed
about to collapse into a heap when the rays stopped.

The woman who was talking to Urawa before was now on her knees, crying.  "My
son...  will he be all right?  He's almost your age...  He lives only a few
blocks..."  She didn't finish the sentence, as Urawa sadly shook his head.

"Serenity will save us!" shouted one man.  "Please, almighty Queen", said
another, facing the Palace in a deep bow.  Urawa nudged him upright and
pointed to where the Palace used to be.  All there was was a pile of rubble,
shattered as if the Palace was truly made of the glass that it resembled.

                                *   *   *   *   *

Not only was this the most densely populated part of the city, but it was
even denser in midday; there were all those skyscrapers, and the underground
mall, and the stadium...  Urawa estimated that that single attempt at life-
saving had rescued three hundred thousand people.  Now came an even harder
part...  making sure they stayed that way.

He and Yumemi and Hotaru kept themselves busy trying to distribute what food
and water could be found.  A major city, or part of one, was always only a few
days away from starvation.  Right now, everyone was kind, and helpful...
almost too helpful.  But sooner or later, when everyone realized their
predicament, it was possible that things could get ugly.  Especially without
their Queen to save them...  they all depended too much on her.  They
believed she could do everything, and when this invasion showed that she
couldn't, anything could happen.

But first things first.  The phones were all dead; the few blocks of the city
that they had managed to save didn't include the central controlling system.
There wasn't any electrical power except for those buildings which had
emergency generators, and few had, since after all nothing had ever gone wrong
in centuries.  There were few cars; Crystal Tokyo never had as many as the
twentieth century did, and all the roads were rubble, anyway.  But it was
still possible to get word out.

Urawa unloaded the crate beside himself, that he had brought in anticipation of
the disaster, and set up a portable fusion generator, a small radio dish, and a
recording cube.  Then he pressed the cube's sides and spoke into it:

"Mayday, mayday.  Crystal Tokyo has been almost completely destroyed.  I repeat,
Crystal Tokyo has been almost completely destroyed.  It's a sudden attack by
the Black Moon.  We need help... medical assistance, food, water, and shelter.
And evacuation.  Serenity is powerless.  My name is Urawa Ryo and I'm located
approximately two kilometers south of the palace."

Urawa set the cube to continuous play and aimed the dish southeast.  The suburbs
over there would be the closest surviving population center.  It would be a
weak signal, but there were no others to mask it.

                                *   *   *   *   *

What is this?  What is happening?, thought Plum, completely confused.  Before
her was standing a person...  Esmeraude she was called, though Plum had never
heard her called that, she just knew.

I...  I...  Plum's newly-formed mind tried to cope with even the concept of
existence and self.  Mission...  what?  Yes, she was created to do what
Esmeraude says.  That was it.  What else was there to do anyway?  Plum bowed
down to Esmeraude and awaited her order.

"Destroy everything that is Serenity's!" commanded Esmeraude.  Yes, that was
what she would do.  The knowledge of how to use her internal energy came to her,
though she had never used it before, and never even existed before a minute
ago.  Plum raised her hand and sent out purple waves of force at a building,
bringing it collapsing down.  Esmeraude had a facial expression--a smile, she
knew it was called.  Then she turned away and left Plum to her own devices.

Plum looked to Esmeraude for more orders, whenever Esmeraude appeared in front
of her.  She followed them as best she could; it was Esmeraude's place to give
her orders and hers to obey them.  She didn't talk except to say two words to
help her mistress, not yet truly understanding the use of speech.

It was a long time afterwards to Plum--a few hours, any human would have called
that period of time--when she again looked to Esmeraude for another order.
And instead of giving Plum purpose again, Esmeraude simply disappeared.

Then the beams came down.  It never even occurred to Plum that she was of no
further use to Esmeraude and that there would never be any orders again.  Plum
interpreted the beams as an attack, just like if they came from the hands of a
human wearing a sailor suit and tiara.  Plum shot out energy from her body in
response to this unseen attacker.

Droids were not created with a sense of resource management.  Plum used her
energy on the black beams at full power.  It didn't work, just passed right
through, but Plum kept on and on, mechanically driving herself to
self-destruction.

Suddenly the hotel she was standing near collapsed.  Plum heard the sound and
looked up at huge masses falling on top of herself.  Again, an attack.  She
knew how to handle that, and started blasting at it.  But it wasn't enough.
Tons of crystal and concrete fell on top of her, burying her deeply.  The
beams started to disintegrate the crystal into sand, but that was meters above
her; for now she remained intact.

                                *   *   *   *   *

Sailor Miranda ran through the city, carrying her bags.  She had to run, just
get away.  But if she stayed away and tried to come back her parents would
beat her.  But if she didn't return they'd be worried and they'd come find her
and beat her even worse....  She had already been gone for hours.  What could
she do?  Was there anyone who could take her in, if just for a little while?
Even Hikaru lived too far away to walk.

A tall male figure wearing a blue uniform, with a small crescent moon over his
heart, stopped her.  Miranda recognized the uniform as that of the Crystal
Tokyo Police.

The police officer looked her over from feet to head, his gaze especially
drawn by Miranda's costume.  Finally he said "Not a droid.  You gave me quite
a scare, young lady.  Did you know that there are monsters attacking over by
the Church?  I almost thought you were one of them."

"It's just a costume", Miranda said.

"So are your parents here?" he asked.  "It's pretty dangerous."

"No, they're not!  I ran away, okay?  Now leave me."  She angrily turned away
from the officer and walked down the street.

"I'm sorry", said the police officer, putting a hand on her shoulder.  "Please
come with me."  He smiled, in an attempt to get her to relax her guard, she
thought.  "What's your name?"

"I'm Miranda", she answered; the officer nodded and again said "Come with
me.", continuing.  "It's all right.  I'll take you to the station until you
can be purified."

"No!  I don't want to be!"

"You seem like a very angry young woman.  But the love of Serenity can conquer
all.  There's no reason to be sad.  Now come with me."

He hasn't done this much, thought Miranda.  Because he couldn't convince the
sun to rise with that attitude.  "I'm not going!" she cried.

Miranda ran, chased by the officer.  

Suddenly the world turned dark, lit only by what lights were on the street, and
those were beginning to go out.  Miranda felt her skin being eaten away like
it was sandpaper, and saw people around herself fall left and right.  A stray
thought crossed her mind as to whether she somehow caused this somehow, whether
this pain was because she disobeyed her parents and fought back, and all the
people around her were dying because of her.  And whether she was being spared
to be allowed to know what she did wrong.  Tears flowed freely down her
cheeks again, only to evaporate under that black barrage.

Miranda spotted a strange wall, hanging in the sky.  Somehow it was stopping
the beams.  She ran towards it, passing other dying bodies.  Even though she
had become a Sailor Senshi, she couldn't save...  of course.  That was it.
The Senshi were resistant to damage.  It wasn't her fault.  What was she
thinking?

Miranda ran into the safe area and felt the black rays immediately vanish.
She made her way into a building and collapsed again.

                                *   *   *   *   *

"Excuse me, officer?" asked Urawa of a blue-clad Crystal Tokyo policeman.

The police officer was barely paying attention.  He just kept looking around,
at the nearby devastation and at several of the injured people in the street.
"Serenity save us" said the officer.

"She's not going to", replied Urawa.  "Would you please watch this for me?"
he asked, indicating the transmitter.

The police officer nodded, not saying a word.

"I mean it", said Urawa.  "This is probably the only thing broadcasting in
the whole city.  Don't you want to do something to help?"

The officer looked at the destruction.  He looked at the hill of crystal that
was all that remained of the palace, as if some mystical force were going to
restore it to its earlier condition, but it just sat there.  He felt the
sleet on his arms; Serenity's magical gift to the city had collapsed.  No,
there was going to be no ball of light to make everyone safe and secure and
serene this time.  It was up to everyone to do what they could do on their own.
"I'll...  I'll guard it with my life", said the officer, still stunned.

                                *   *   *   *   *

Urawa and Yumemi walked around outside the undestroyed zone, looking around.
Finally, Urawa spotted a burly man wearing a Crystal Tokyo Sanitation
Department uniform, who was carrying a shovel.  The shovel smelled slightly--
he must have been shoveling trash with it--but it was just what they needed.
"Excuse me...  can you help us?  There's someone buried out there.  And if
you have any more shovels, we could use some."

The man wasn't used to being given requests by fourteen-year-olds, but
something about Urawa's attitude struck him as no-nonsense.  "I'd be glad
to help", said the worker.

The man donated the shovels to Urawa and Yumemi, and they led him to one of
the ruined buildings outside the area.  "What?  I don't see anything." replied
the worker.

"Trust me.  Trust us.  There's someone down there."

The man nodded and started digging where Urawa indicated.  Urawa and Yumeni
sped the process by shovelling themselves, though Urawa's fourteen-year-old
body was nowhere near as strong as an adult's.

The inhuman purple figure underneath the rubble had been there for the major
part of its entire existence.  Plum was obeying orders, and now she was lying
under rubble.  Perhaps some time she might be doing something else.  Does
someone buried under rubble ever get out?  Plum tried to think.

"Hey", shouted a male voice from outside, "we're going to dig you out.  Just
lie still, okay?  You're being rescued.  My name's Urawa."

What?  Humans outside?  Plum could destroy...  no, she couldn't.  No energy.
What to do then?  Plum reviewed the options.  Attack, no.  Defend, no.  Hide.
That was it, hide.  She transformed to take on a human guise, another thing
she knew how to do but had never done before.  As Plum's skin pinkened and she
became a woman with long purple hair, she closed her eyes, rejoicing in the
thought that she was safe.  They wouldn't destroy another human.

As the three dug the debris away, lifting away larger pieces or going around
the largest ones completely, they uncovered a human face, eyes closed.

"Well, I'll lose my crystal", said the worker, using the phrase that in the
reign of Serenity had become an expletive.  "There is someone there.  But if
the impact didn't crush her, she must have suffocated that far down."

"No, look", said Urawa.  "Her face isn't blue.  She's not bleeding.  I don't
think she's even very hurt."

Yumemi smiled at the woman under the rubble and helped her up.  "Take it easy.
Come with us...  it's bad out here, but there's food and shelter a few blocks
away."

Plum took the woman's hand and pulled herself to her feet as the other two dug
her out completely.  Humans, she recalled, were a source of energy.  And she
was so weak now.  She tried to absorb what she could, but it didn't work.
Searching through the knowledge implanted in her mind, Plum found nothing to
explain this phenomenon.  Best to keep going, then, following the humans until
she could do something else.

"You look more tired than a month without sleep could do", said Yumemi as they
arrived at the surviving area.  "Come on, there's places you can rest.  In the
buildings in the safe area, or in a few other places that survived."

"I don't..." said Plum.

"Sure you do.  Rest, regain your energy", said Yumemi.  There was a slight
smile on her face as she said that last word.  Yumemi pointed towards a cot, one
of several that had been salvaged from the ruined buildings.

No choice, thought Plum.  If she wanted them to think she was human, anyway.
Plum lay down on the cot and tried to recall what how humans were supposed to
act when they were sleeping.  First, they had to lie down, and then they stayed
in one position.  They kept their eyes closed, so Plum did.  Plum searched her
memory for more information about humans and couldn't figure out how they were
supposed to sleep, so she thought about something else.  Plum thought about
the Senshi, and about human life, and about the Black Moon, and about how to
fight and defend herself, her thoughts going off on tangents more and more....

Yumeni looked into the room at the loudly snoring Plum.  Out like a light, she
thought.

                                *   *   *   *   *

In an area that used to be a mall selling fancy clothes, the kind which the
princess adored as one of the treasures of her kingdom, a number of doctors
had set up makeshift medical treatment areas.  By chance, they had lived or
worked in the safe area, except one, who was on the subway at the time.  Their
help was urgently needed, but it seemed like there would always be far more
patients than they could handle.

In one corner away from the doctors sat Saturn, who was doing her best to heal
the more severe injuries.  But all those who were injured lightly or not at
all gave her a wide berth.

"Hi", said Urawa, and began cutting up sheets to provide makeshift bandages.

"Hi, Urawa..." said Yumemi.  "It's awful.  People on the edge were burned by
the rays, or hurt by collapsing rubble.  And there's a half dozen people who
got caught in a car explosion."

Urawa nodded to Yumemi.  "All we can do is wait.  Soon someone will hear us
and the city will be evacuated."

A man wearing a small jade Cauldron on a gold chain around his neck stepped
forwards from the crowd and looked directly at Saturn.  "You!  You caused all
this!  You're the destroyer of everything."

"No!" shouted Urawa, looking up at the man's eyes.  "She's here to help us!
I called her here!  We're doing the best we can to save as many people as we
can."

"Soon Serenity will appear to recreate what Saturn has destroyed...."

"Do you really believe that?  Why didn't she take some precautions?  She
should have known that this attack was going to come.  It was foretold, since
the twentieth century.  Why didn't she send a fleet out to Nemesis a year ago
to make sure there weren't any problems?  Why did she drive all her enemies off
of the Earth in the first place when she knew what was going to happen?  She
could have sent them to the Tree of Life's planet, or Kinmokusei, or she
could have tried to work with them instead of turning little enemies into big
ones..."

"What does a kid like you know about the twentieth century?"

"What does...?  Listen.  I'm a lot older than I seem to be.  I'm _from_ it!"
exclaimed Urawa.  "Here", he said, taking a Crystal Tokyo taxpayer
identification card from his pocket.  Urawa pointed to the age line.  There it
was, in red: Urawa Ryo, born 1981.

The man gave Urawa a very suspicious look.  "That must be fake", he said, not
entirely certain of that.  "Only the royal family and the Senshi live that
long."

"No.  And no, you don't want to know."

                                *   *   *   *   *

"Hello?" said Urawa to the young woman lying in the cot.

"Hello" she said, smiling feebly.

"Do you have a name?" Urawa asked.

"Plum.  You rescued me.  Why?"

"Because...  because we were the only people who could help you."

"What?" asked Plum.

"That's a pretty good guise", said Yumeni.  "But we're not fooled."

The disguised droid panicked at this, and transformed to purple.  She raised
herself off of the bed and lunged at Urawa and Yumeni.  "Cooan says die."
They easily sidestepped.

"Let me ask you why, Plum", said Urawa.  "Why should we die?"

"Because..."  Plum tried to think.  "I'm confused."

"No wonder you're confused", said Yumemi.  "Sit down.  Change back.  And
Cooan's not going to return."

Plum did understand the concept of lies, on some level.  She didn't understand
suspicion very well, though.  "Oh.  If she's not, are you giving me orders?"
she asked, sitting back down on the cot.

Urawa laughed a little.  "If you want to think of it that way.  But not quite."
His expression got a little more serious as he continued, "Let me tell you a
story.  Ages and ages ago, there was a kingdom on the moon.  It was attacked
by Queen Beryl, whose forces had their own servants, called youma, very much
like you.  Queen Beryl lost.

Plum nodded, listening as Urawa explained.  "The Queen of the moon died too,
but not before she used her crystal to make her strongest fighters be
reincarnated in the twentieth century.  Then she split the crystal up as she
died.  Seven youma from that time were reincarnated, too, carrying the pieces
of her crystal."

"You?" asked Plum.

"Yes, us.  Once the Dark Kingdom awoke us in the twentieth century, we stopped
aging.  Some died in accidents or in other ways, but we two survived all
that time.  I've been fourteen for over nine hundred years now, and my wife
has been eighteen for as long.

"There really wasn't much to our existence in the Dark Kingdom other than as
servants designed to do battle.  Youma were only supposed to obey orders, not
think.  So we remained pretty much as we were as humans.  But we kept a bit of
power; that's how we knew just where to find you.  And we knew that being a
creation of an evil power doesn't mean you're a thing to be tossed away or
pulverized into moondust without even thinking."

"Like Sailor Moon did", added Yumemi.  "Luckily, she thought of us as humans,
not youma.  But a lot of new youma didn't get that benefit.  They could be
sentient enough to pretend to be a store owner and fool humans for hours,
but she never tried to help or heal them--just kill them."

"Will you accept our help?" asked Urawa.

Plum slowly nodded in agreement.  "No choice, right?" she asked.

"No better choice.  Consider it an order if you want."

                                *   *   *   *   *

"Let me through!  Let me through!" shouted a young teenage girl.  She looked
even younger than Urawa appeared to be.  She was wearing a green leather
bikini top, a green skirt, and gloves and boots.  On her head was a white and
gold tiara.  "Aunt Hotaru, it's me...  I heard you were here.  I know you
don't like mama and papa much any more but I'm so glad to see you."

The crowd watched, astonished, as the girl threw her arms around Sailor Saturn,
sobbing "Aunt Hotaru".  Some looked away, knowing that Saturn was the Senshi
of destruction, and not wanting to see the girl get hurt.

Saturn took in the hair, the costume, and figured out just who the girl was
and who she must have meant.  "Miranda?" she said.  "I haven't seen you in
years."  Most of the crowd edged away further at this reaction, wondering just
who a girl was that could get this kind of response from Sailor Saturn.

"I...  I hit them back.  Mama and papa.  I changed and I hit them back just
like they hit me.  And I ran.  Can you forgive me?"

"Miranda...  Sailor Miranda..." whispered Saturn.  "You have to understand
this.  Your mama and papa don't have enough empathy to go with their
dedication.  When they have a goal in sight, they won't stop just because
people have to get hurt.  You didn't do anything wrong.  I wish I could have
helped you, but all I could do was run away.  I couldn't start a civil war.
Can you forgive _me_?"

"You didn't do anything!  I hit them back and they must be dead now!"

Saturn shook her head.  "The Black Moon family attacked, Miranda.  It has
nothing to do with you.  And if you had stayed home you'd be dead anyway.
Hold out your hand."

"What?"

"Hold out your hand."

Miranda did.  Saturn touched it and the scab slowly shrivelled up and fell off,
leaving new, unbroken, skin.  "You saw that?  Th--thank you", said Miranda.
She repeated the process on all Miranda's bruises, as well as the raw skin
from the black rays.  "Aunt Hotaru?"

"Yes, what is it, child?" answered Saturn.

"Did they beat you?  Is that why you left?"

"No, Miranda.  I was a baby, and then I was almost your age, just like that.
I wasn't a child for years under their care, and anyway they knew I had another
destiny and they couldn't try to raise me as a duplicate of themselves.  And...
I think they were afraid."

"Afraid?"

"They didn't understand me.  I'm not like the other Senshi.  They were afraid of
what they could unleash, because they never understood me."

Seeing Miranda's puzzlement, Saturn explained.  "I'm the Senshi of destruction,
but I'm also a healer...  it's not destruction which is the important part,
it's _change_.  Wanton devastation is not me.  Neither is reprisal or revenge."
She motioned out to the city.  "And unless there were some great evil to be
destroyed, I would never do that.  But..."

"But?" asked Miranda.

"But things will never be the same again."

                                *   *   *   *   *

As they entered to meet Hotaru, Urawa caught Saturn's final remark and
explained to Plum in a whisper.  "That's Sailor Saturn.  Don't attack her.  Or
that girl there in a costume either."

"Was that a prediction of doom?" asked Urawa to Saturn.  "I thought that's my
job."

"No.  It depends on what people do.  I can't see the future, I can only go on
what happened in the past.  A long, long, time ago, Japan was at war.  Japan
invaded other countries, and did awful things, and was defeated.  But left
behind something quite unintentional."

"What was that?" asked Miranda and Urawa, almost at the same time.

"Much of the world was colonies then.  The war showed the people of the
colonies that their masters could be defeated.  When their would-be
conquerers left...  they began taking things into their own hands.  Within
twenty years almost all of the colonies were free.  Some did well.  Some
drove themselves to ruin under their own despots.  But either way, the idea of
being ruled from thousands of miles away left the world."

"I see..." said Urawa.  "That was so long ago.  It came back, with a vengeance.
Now nobody alive has ever lived under anything else.  Except you and me and
Yumemi-chan.  People don't mind that a queen living on the other side of the
world, who doesn't even know enough to write her own language, has the
authority to tell them how they can trade and how much their income is to be
taxed.  And they worship her and the power of love, as if she's something
special and that nobody else could have done the same thing if _they_ could
use a Silver Crystal."

Saturn corrected Urawa.  "Didn't mind.  Worshipped.  Past tense.  Urawa,
there's a citizen's committee forming to deal with trouble.  Just a few dozen
people, but they've managed to distribute the medical supplies and get the
injured people to me very efficiently.  And it's been two _days_.  If the
Queen stays gone for a year...  that's a year of no central government at all,
of people learning to think for themselves and decide their own fate."

"The future", said Urawa.  "I can't see everything.  If you're right...  I
wonder how it's going to work out?"
------------------
Notes:
I've tried to be 100% canon, this being the point of the whole story.  There's
quite a bit of mixing of anime and manga continuity.

The fanfic belief that Serenity purified the whole Earth seems to come from a
bad synopsis of episode #83.  The episode itself doesn't support this; only
criminals were purified.