[Rei peers down at him, trying not to seem all that menacing. It's hard, given that yes she is taller, and yes she is an imposing woman, but she's trying okay? She'll get to the bombshell in a moment, but first she wants to address the first topic.]
I didn't have the choice, no, I was born to the role. However I did have the choice to continue fighting after the first time. I could have walked away.[She releases his shoulder at that and takes a breath.]
If it's a choice you've made, then don't act like it's something you have to do. I just don't want you thinking it's expected of you. Because it isn't. It's your choice.
[She pauses one more time, and smiles again, actually smiles.]
And it's the right one. I also don't want you thinking I'm doubting you. I just don't want you to thinking you have to bear the weight of the world on your shoulders and do it all. You don't. If you need time then you need time. Just like you told me to do.
[Jerking her head to the picnic table, she continued.]
And please, let's sit? I'll explain what I meant. It's a lengthy story. And you may not like what it entails, but it's all in my past. [Holding up a finger, she adds:] And rest assured, my story has a happy ending.
[She's trying and that's important, and more importantly she's successful in getting him to shut up really think about what she's saying. There's something to be said about people who're more experienced in these things than he is. He's silent, listening to her talk about choices. She's right. It's not something he has to do since he's making the choice. Maybe that just sounds better and less suicidal than wanting to do it.]
...it's complicated. [He finally says, and he nods in response to her gesture.] If it's your past, then I want to hear it. All of it. The good parts and the bad parts. [With that, he leads them to the table and settles on the bench, expectantly waiting for her.]
[He doesn't have long to wait. Rei nods solemnly and goes to sit across from him on the other side. It's a familiar setting, but this time she has no hot chocolate. An oversight she'll rectify next time.
And taking a breath, Rei begins. She won't dwell on the past conversation, and she'd walked into this knowingly. Mission accomplished.]
You know I am Mars. But I don't think I ever really told you what that means, did I? To really understand what this is about, I need to explain the background. All of it.
[If she has the mun has forgotten.]
I am a soldier, the guardian goddess of flame, war, and passion. [A beat, and a wry smile.] And yes, I am actually a Martian. The last one, in point of fact. Mars is...me, and I'm her, but there's a lot more to it than that. I have, as I have said, allies. One for each planet, and one for the moon.
And I know this might seem hard to believe...but long, long ago, before the ice ages on Earth? There were kingdoms on each planet. My allies and I were the rulers of our respective kingdoms, and we were all sworn in unity to protect the Moon Kingdom. Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus were the Royal Guard of the Moon Kingdom's princess, while the other planets were the sentinels that guarded the edges of our solar system. This was a time we called the Silver Millennium. It was a time of peace, prosperity, and magic, as well as technology so advanced even Cerealia can't come close to matching it. Paradise, in a way, with us as the immortal figureheads and protectors.
[With that context out of the way, Rei pauses, looking to Hiro, fully expecting questions. She'll go on if he has none, but she's prepared to answer in full.]
[Nope. This is all pretty much news to him and so he leans his elbows on the tabletop and stares at her, listening very closely and matching up facts and shoving them into the tiny mental file labeled Rei Hino. Mars...Mars is the Roman name for Ares who was the god of war, right? That makes sense. All of that makes sense and he can't help the tiny laugh that escapes when she labels herself a martian. Most people wouldn't put it so bluntly.
That's why he likes Rei so much though. The fact that she is Mars though doesn't escape him. Actual guardians of the galaxy...he nods sagely, urging her to continue.
It's when she starts explaining about the kingdoms and the Moon and princesses and other stuff that things get questionable.]
...I think so, but does that mean you have like millenniums worth of memories from being Mars for so long? You don't look old for being a martian. And you should tell me about the tech sometime. [Even if he'll meet Ami in a few days and find her compact computer and that'll be good enough for him.]
[Guardian of the galaxy, princess, goddess, pyromaniac. She's many things. But the questions she answers readily enough.]
It does, yes. I have several thousand years of memory, though generally I try not to think too hard on it. It's hazy at times, but I get flashes of deja-vu about silly things. And I have reflexes for things I shouldn't necessarily have. I've been an expert marksman with a bow since I was old enough to hold it, for example, even without training. And I can speak Martian, and sometimes I just know things I shouldn't know. Just to name a few things.
As for my age? My body is currently 18. But the Sailor Guardians like myself? Are effectively immortal. I won't appear to age much after I reach a certain point.
As for technology, I can show you some, later. But for now, you understand the basic framework of the tale I'm going to tell, yes?
Some people would just say you're a prodigy, and I don't know what Martian even sounds like. But I'd believe all of that. [Mostly because it makes an awful amount of sense. The idea of the senshi being immortal is a little intense, too. He has to wonder how long Rei has before she essentially stops physically aging. That's not something he wants to ask right now, and with the promise of learning more about the tech he finally shuts up.]
[With that done, Rei nods and steels herself a little. This conversation was one she’d had a few times in the past, but it was never particularly pleasant. It was morbid in a way, but she’s committed.]
Even paradise has enemies, Hiro-kun. In this case, the Silver Millennium was opposed by a demon known as Metalia. It lived in the sun, inside a sunspot, I believe, and it fed on pain and suffering, using them to grow stronger. I don’t know much about it’s origins, I just know that it was very real, and very evil.
[There were a lot of things that she didn’t understand about Metalia and their enemies, but the origins of it were probably the most confusing.]
It used it’s power to corrupt the hearts of certain humans; A sorceress and four warriors who functioned as bodyguards for the Prince of the Earth chief among them. The Prince, the lover of the Princess of the Moon Kingdom, was the object of the sorceress’s desire and Metalia was able to turn that jealousy into control. The four warriors were mistrustful of us, due to our long lives and distant homes, and were easily tainted as well. Together with Metalia’s taint, they raised an army and assaulted the Moon Kingdom, burning and destroying it. During the battle, the Prince of the Earth was slain, and in her grief, the Princess took her own life.
[Rei’s fists ball up on the table, a sudden heat welling inside her. She hated that image, that thought, the end of something so great. It stung even now, thinking about how they had failed, all these eons later.]
The sorceress was slain by Venus, and Metalia itself took to the field. We…the four of us…were no match for her, empowered as it was by the suffering all around it, and we died as well. However the Queen of the Moon, Serenity, used her power to seal Metalia back inside the sun. It was not a complete seal, she knew, and with the last of her power, she ensured that the four of us, the Princess and the Prince would be reborn in the future. That…was my first death. I remember very little of it, as it was so very, very long ago.
[She’s leaving out any mention of the Outer Senshi, specifically Saturn and the role she had played in the final ending of the Silver Millennium. That was a frightening reality even for her, and if Hotaru Tomoe did arrive in Cerealia Rei would much prefer that she arrive without people already fearing her command of life and death.]
And I was reborn, in this body, on April 17th, 1978. As you know me now.
[None of it sounds real. Absolutely none of it sounds real and yet he knows for a fact it is because Rei has never had a reason to lie to him. The fact that it is so very real is what keeps his mouth shut even as he's trying to picture all of this. He's making images up for what Metalia must look like, trying to picture demons that could live in the sun and leech off of negative emotions.
Humans had a lot of pain and suffering sometimes. It makes sense that it would manifest and feed a creature that would be used to target galaxies.]
But why wasn't there any way to fix the corruption? Of they were just sort of brainwashed...there had to be something. [It doesn't matter now, and in a way he knows it's disrespectful to ask. So he bows his head and goes quiet.] ...sorry. I...sorry.
[How very Romeo and Juliet. He's carefully monitoring Rei though as she continues.] If Metalia was sealed and you guys were reborn, and the magic that the Moon Queen or whoever used was only powerful enough to keep Metalia locked up in the sun...does that mean everything's going to repeat itself when the seal wears off? What about the rest of you? Were you all born again at the same time?
It's fine. We just...didn't know they were brainwashed until it was too late.
[She takes a breath and continues answering questions. Slow and steady.]
We were reborn together, within a year of one another. I'm the oldest, born in April. The youngest was Jupiter, born in December. As for repeating itself?
[Well, he wanted to know.]
It already did, in a way. Metalia broke free in part, and revived it's minions. Beryl and the four bodyguards. And...we awoke slowly ourselves. The five of us, one by one. In the end, a lot of things happened.
The seal is back, and permanent, complete, and whole. Metalia is locked away for all time. We regained memories of our past lives as well. And...in the final battle we were killed defending the Princess. But it was a price I'd gladly pay, to save the world.
[Death two. But...she forestalls questions with a finger.]
It was a temporary state. The Princess, or as she's known in this age, Sailor Moon, has a powerful artifact. A vessel of near limitless power called the Ginzuisho. With that, she revived us, restored us, and we went on about our lives for a time.
[For a time.]
But see, Metalia? Is just the first enemy. That's just the beginning.
[Rei...are you really telling him about a potential tool that could revive people? He's immediately hung up on that, committing the name to memory even as he builds the mental timeline for himself.]
So Sailor Moon only survived because you guys protected her and the seal in the sun was made whole so Metalia can't come back. And you guys came back without having to go through the rebirth cycle because of some thing that the princess had. Can it be used more than once? And what came after the Metalia?
Just Metalia, not the. It's a name. But yes, you've got it.
[Simple as that.]
And yes, it can be. It's used multiple times, of course. It's...really the most powerful object in our universe, as far as I know. I've never seen anything it couldn't deal with. But next.
[Shaking her head, Rei laughs a little, because this is going to be hard to believe.]
Nemesis came next, and the Black Moon Clan. A family of wicked beings similar to Sailor Senshi, from the tenth planet in the solar system. Nemesis. A planet made of black crystal, and protected by spells that obscure it from sight. It's impossible to view without knowing it's there, and that's why astronomers have never located it.
[Yes, she said tenth planet. So...lets just keep on going.]
Whoa...[All of that's a little mind-boggling. He can ask about that tool much later because a tenth planet? He's studied space enough to know that she's right, it's something astronomers have never discovered but at the same time maybe it's just not something in his universe. Still, Tellus exists. Who's to say other planets don't really exist?]
Time travel's something some people are still working on at home and it's actually a cool concept, but what does it really have to do with Nemesis and the anti-Senshi or whoever they really are?
Everything. It has everything to do with them. And…here’s where things get really complicated.
[Rei’s lips twitch into a small frown as she tries to work out the best way to explain this.]
The Black Moon Clan, the rulers of Nemesis, are from our future. The 30th Century, as I understand it, and they have access to a powerful dark counterpart to the Ginzuisho simply called the Dark Crystal. I don’t know everything about them, because of how…time travel works, I haven’t quite gotten to that point yet, but what I do know is that they were originally rebels against Crystal Tokyo.
[She holds up a hand, trying to get through this before questions hit…]
As to what that is…well. This is how I know we are from entirely different worlds. At the turn of the 20th century, Sailor Moon and the Sailor Senshi transcended humanity with the help of the Ginzuisho. We more or less reawakened our past lives, divinity and power, all of us, and regained our full power while still retaining who we are. And Sailor Moon married her prince Endymion at last. [There’s a fond note there, even though she hadn’t seen the wedding yet.] The two of them took the throne of the Earth, unifying the world and creating a utopia, and transforming Tokyo into Crystal Tokyo. There was no war, no hunger, no death. Simply…I suppose you could call it paradise.
Only a dark power from outside was at work, a being known as Death Phantom. He tried to raise a rebellion against the Queen and as he was in a human body the Queen refused to kill him. Instead, she banished him to Nemesis and declared the planet off limits. There he became something…dark and evil after coming into contact with the taint of that place, and eventually his influence spread back to Earth. He brainwashed more civilians to fight against us, and was again defeated and the citizens were sent to Nemesis as well. That…became the origins of the Black Moon Clan.
[There may be a slight hint of disgust in her voice, something cold and angry. Disrupting something like that for personal greed...it infuriated her.]
They attacked again in earnest in the 30th century, waging a pitched battle for control of the Earth. [And then comes something weirder.]
And in a bid to protect her daughter as well as the Ginzuisho, the queen sent her daughter back in time with the crystal to stay with us for protection.
[Now, she’s seen Terminator. She knows how this sounds. So…she’ll pause there for Hiro to process And the mun too.]
Okay. [That's really all he can say at first because hooooo boy, Rei, that is a lot to wrap his big brain around.] Okay. So...Crystal Tokyo was basically utopia until this Death Phantom guy tried to destroy everything and got himself isolated. And then he was less isolated when the rest of his army joined him on Nemesis and so the Queen...Sailor Moon? I guess? Had a kid with the prince and so because she knew that the 30th century was in huge trouble she sent her daughter and the life-revival weapon back to the 20th century because she knew what was coming and wanted to prepare you guys.
Which means that the daughter was with you guys and a younger version of Sailor Moon...how'd that work out? [He's giving her a look, checking that his facts are right as he's trying to really force himself to believe all of this is 100% real.]
The queen is who Sailor Moon becomes, yes. And yes, that's the right of it. Only it wasn't to prepare us, it was to hide the crystal.
[Heh. He catches on quick, and she knows it sounds insane.]
Now, of course it wasn't so simple as that. The Black Moon Clan found a way to travel back after Sailor Chibi-Moon [Don't laugh that's her name] and...caused us a lot of trouble. We killed some of their agents, but they managed to capture myself, Mercury, and Jupiter and brought us back to the future. We...spent some time on Nemesis, in their dungeon...before Sailor Moon, Sailor Chibi-Moon, and Sailor Venus rescued us.
And...because this story isn't complicated enough, that's when another senshi arrived to help us. Sailor Pluto, the Goddess and Guardian of Time. She was able to send them forward in time to help us, and together with her and Sailor Chibi-Moon we managed to defeat the Black Moon and Death Phantom.
[Everything involved in this is so hard to swallow, she knows.]
And then we went back home, and everything settled for a while. A few months.
[Strangely enough he doesn't have questions this time. It all makes perfect sense to him. Why wouldn't the Guardian of Time be the one to fix everything? Why wouldn't mother and daughter work with Venus to save the other senshi? It all makes perfect sense. A real heroic epic tale. Complicated, yes, but it still makes enough sense that he can accept it with very little questioning.]
And then after a few months...what? Something else, or you guys wound up here?
[Well, don't mind if she does go on then. Her mouth quirks in a smile.]
Don't tell me you think we're anywhere close to finished.
[This one was a bit more complex...but simpler too.]
Well next, we started encountering more enemies. Different than the last, and heralded by mysterious visions. They too were ultimately attempting to gain control over the earth, under the direction of an alien entity from the Tau Nebula named Pharoah 90. I'm not sure why it was called that, but it send it's agents, the Death Busters, to Earth to gather the life energy of humans. We believe it wanted to turn the Earth into a haven for it's kind but ultimately all we could really tell is that it was an enemy.
It tricked a famous scientist, Souichi Tomoe, into making a deal with it in exchange for keeping his daughter alive and granted him the knowledge and skill to create some truly terrifying beings. And...turn both himself and his daughter into cybernetic fiends. We fought them, of course...and met some new allies.
Two more Outer Senshi. Sailor Uranus and Neptune. They joined us and worked with us to defeat the enemy. It was a difficult fight, given the beings involved, but we won in the end. [She's paraphrasing of course because she doesn't really want to talk about Mistress 9 and all of that.] And...discovered something else.
Tomoe's daughter was actually the reincarnation of one of our own. Sailor Saturn, the Guardian of Silence. she was much younger, twelve or so, at the time and with the help of Sailor Moon and the rest of us she regained her body and humanity. Ultimately, that was sort of a complete win for us. No deaths, and new friends.
Absolutely not. [Heroes never have short and quick stories and just like before he's listening with rapt attention. The longer Rei talks the easier it becomes to absorb everything that's being told and it works as a nice distraction from the things that have happened here. It's fascinating to hear about the way other people work, the experience they've had and compare them to his own.
That accounts for all of the planets plus the small moon. The core group are Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. Saturn's the guardian of silence. Pluto of time. Uranus and Neptune showed up to fight against other aliens. People being different than other people thought and that is where things get complicated but sure. Reincarnation.]
...can I ask you something, Rei? All of the people these monsters and stuff hurt, do they remember all of this later? Did the scientist remember being tricked and the things that happened to them? How do you guys even keep all of this a secret with everything happening?
Oh. Well for the most part no, they don't remember it well. Some things are unavoidable, but a lot of people think it's fake, or a hoax. And the people that do really believe often don't want to talk about it because it's magic. And in the end? Normal people just want to go on about their lives. So...they shrug it off as a dream. Or as a big dog biting them or something. A lot of crime went unsolved though.
[It's...basically complicated.]
The scientist, though? He died. He was so far gone, corrupted and evil by Pharoah 90 that he was an unavoidable casualty.
Both the fortunate and unfortunate part of being a hero, huh? You can keep your identity secret but sometimes things are still out of your hands to fix. [There's a short pause, debating if he wants to bring this piece up.]
...but I think I get it. There were some things that happened back home that were unavoidable, too. People who were too corrupted to avoid being punished...but the punishment changed. I changed my mind.
That's all part of our job though. Making sure normal people can go on with their lives and not worry about stuff like that. I guess I'm just...sorry it happened for you guys. It's a lot to deal with on top of trying to be one of the normal people.
Don’t apologize for it. It’s what we were born to do, and what we were meant to do. It might seem sad, but it’s something I accepted a long time ago. I did have a choice to stop, in the beginning, but I didn’t. And for better or worse, my fate is bound to that of Sailor Moon and the Sailor Senshi now. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Especially now.
[Resolve flows off her, eyes closing and a small smile creeping across her lips.]
But we’re not finished, of course. We’re not even at the finale, because I haven’t talked about Nehellenia and Galaxia yet. [A breath.] And they are by far the most dangerous beings I’ve ever encountered. Even here.
[Palms flat on the table, Rei goes on.]
The story of Nehellenia starts a few months after we recovered poor Sailor Saturn, during a solar eclipse. I was visited by visions of danger and trouble, which tends to signal the beginnings of a turbulent time, and so was Sailor Neptune. Snatches of memory started coming back to us, not just myself and Neptune, but all ten of us that were alive during the Silver Millennium. Memories of a story told to us by the Queen about something that happened on the day the princess was born. An enemy roughly the parallel of Queen Serenity herself, hailing from a kingdom buried beneath the moon’s surface, came before the Queen and denounced the Moon Kingdom and the nine planets that housed Sailor Senshi. She vowed to destroy us all, and claim the solar system as her own.
The Queen defeated her easily enough, sealing her inside a dark mirror and casting her back below the surface of the Moon, but not before Nehellenia cast a curse upon the Kingdom. She said the Princess would never take the throne, and the Kingdom would die. That…as you already know, occurred with the help of Metallia, but because she was trapped in the mirror she did not die when Sailor Saturn ended Metallia’s attack and the Queen cast our spirits forward to be reincarnated. [Which she may have forgotten to mention, whoops.]
Well...during the eclipse, the seal weakened, and she freed herself and set about attempting to make sure her curse came about, and steal the Ginzuisho. She send her agents, four lesser Senshi from moons or planetoids throughout the Solar System calling themselves the Amazon Quartet she'd enslaved with her power, along with her enforcers to Earth disguised as a circus and started causing trouble. Disappearances, attacks and skirmishes against us, that sort of thing. We...dealt with the Quartet and her other minions, but confronting her directly required help.
So, we did something we'd never done before. We returned to our castles on our respective homeworlds, and activated them to draw on more energy. I'm not sure if what I saw in Phobos and Deimos castle could be considered technology or magic, but the power from it...[Rei closes her eyes, remembering the way it flowed...] It was incredible. And that, combined with Sailor Moon's abilities was enough to put down Nehellenia once and for all. [Leaving out Helios, but...Helios is convoluted and hard to explain without directly talking about Chibiusa as...Chibiusa.]
In the end, she was cast down and unmade, never to return. And the Amazon Quartet was freed of their bond and sent forward in time to act as a Senshi Court for Sailor Chibi-Moon. A rather succinct story, this time, I think.
...probably, but give me some time to really process all of it, okay? This is all stuff that Tadashi and I have grown up hearing about but it was all...you know. Made up. [Anime and manga and who knows what else.] Knowing that it's real and that it's happened to somebody I actually know is sort of a mind-blower. But I appreciate you telling me everything. [There's a tiny grin.] I know it's not easy to tell somebody your entire life story.
Of course. We're really...nearing the end anyway. There's only one more stage of life to cover. I'll let you process before finishing up. It's better broken up into chunks.
[With a small laugh she shakes her head.]
You asked that tell you everything. It's not easy no, but it's not as though I don't expect you to tell me about your adventures too. That is, after all, a fair exchange.
[And that causes him to pause, a strange and uneasy look crossing his features. Right...that would be fair, wouldn't it? But at the same time...there's a lot of reasons why he's not certain he can tell Rei everything about home. It was a miracle that Ruby knew at all. Still, he forces a weak grin to replace the look and he nods, even if he's hunching a bit to curl in on himself a little.]
Right. Fair exchanges are...really fair. [Hiro what.] I think I'm ready for the last part and then I'll ask all of my questions.
This one is a bit easier to talk about. It's shorter, because I was...not present for much of it.
[Rei lowers her head. This was her second...well...third death, really.]
The final enemy was heralded by three arrivals. A group of strangers, Senshi from another galaxy. We called them the Sailor Starlights. They were around for a few months, as were some strange monsters that they seemed capable of fighting. And we thought they had brought them. We were wrong.
[Her eyes flicker around, and there's some evident discomfort.]
These monsters were brought by four evil beings, five ...Senshi from other worlds. They'd followed the Starlights, seeking out life and energy sources in the form of hearts, essentially. (Sailor Crystals). These five Senshi were people who killed their own homeworld's Sailor Senshi and stole their powers. Sailor Iron Mouse, Aluminum Seiren, Lead Crow, Tin Nyanko, and Heavy Metal Papillon. They attacked us eventually...and while they were destroyed, they weren't the real threat.
[Swallowing...]
Hiro-kun. In my world there is a woman who dresses all in gold, a being of immense evil. She's...more powerful than all of my friends combined, with the exception of Sailor Moon, and even then only with the help of the Ginzuisho. If you ever hear the name Galaxia, or Sailor Galaxia, in reference to someone here...I want you to run. I want you to stay as far away as you possibly can. Because she is something else.
[A breath.]
My final death was at her hands, beside Sailor Venus. She destroyed Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter with little difficulty. We were separated, but even together, I doubt that we'd have stood much chance. Maybe? But it's hard to say.
[Bowing her head, she finishes up.]
Sailor Moon defeated her, though, in a duel at the Galaxy Cauldron. A place where stars are born, and where all life stems. I know next to nothing about it, but I know that Sailor Moon destroyed her, and the being that gave her all that power. But...that's all I know, until we were reborn again.
[Allowing herself a small chuckle.]
After that? It was spring back home, I was about to start university in the fall, and Sailor Moon and the Prince were planning a wedding. Only one day, that all stopped and I woke up here.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I'm sorry Rei is such a shitter, using her own death to break his train of thought XP
I didn't have the choice, no, I was born to the role. However I did have the choice to continue fighting after the first time. I could have walked away.[She releases his shoulder at that and takes a breath.]
If it's a choice you've made, then don't act like it's something you have to do. I just don't want you thinking it's expected of you. Because it isn't. It's your choice.
[She pauses one more time, and smiles again, actually smiles.]
And it's the right one. I also don't want you thinking I'm doubting you. I just don't want you to thinking you have to bear the weight of the world on your shoulders and do it all. You don't. If you need time then you need time. Just like you told me to do.
[Jerking her head to the picnic table, she continued.]
And please, let's sit? I'll explain what I meant. It's a lengthy story. And you may not like what it entails, but it's all in my past. [Holding up a finger, she adds:] And rest assured, my story has a happy ending.
ruderuderude
...it's complicated. [He finally says, and he nods in response to her gesture.] If it's your past, then I want to hear it. All of it. The good parts and the bad parts. [With that, he leads them to the table and settles on the bench, expectantly waiting for her.]
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And taking a breath, Rei begins. She won't dwell on the past conversation, and she'd walked into this knowingly. Mission accomplished.]
You know I am Mars. But I don't think I ever really told you what that means, did I? To really understand what this is about, I need to explain the background. All of it.
[If she has the mun has forgotten.]
I am a soldier, the guardian goddess of flame, war, and passion. [A beat, and a wry smile.] And yes, I am actually a Martian. The last one, in point of fact. Mars is...me, and I'm her, but there's a lot more to it than that. I have, as I have said, allies. One for each planet, and one for the moon.
And I know this might seem hard to believe...but long, long ago, before the ice ages on Earth? There were kingdoms on each planet. My allies and I were the rulers of our respective kingdoms, and we were all sworn in unity to protect the Moon Kingdom. Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus were the Royal Guard of the Moon Kingdom's princess, while the other planets were the sentinels that guarded the edges of our solar system. This was a time we called the Silver Millennium. It was a time of peace, prosperity, and magic, as well as technology so advanced even Cerealia can't come close to matching it. Paradise, in a way, with us as the immortal figureheads and protectors.
[With that context out of the way, Rei pauses, looking to Hiro, fully expecting questions. She'll go on if he has none, but she's prepared to answer in full.]
Do you follow me so far?
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That's why he likes Rei so much though. The fact that she is Mars though doesn't escape him. Actual guardians of the galaxy...he nods sagely, urging her to continue.
It's when she starts explaining about the kingdoms and the Moon and princesses and other stuff that things get questionable.]
...I think so, but does that mean you have like millenniums worth of memories from being Mars for so long? You don't look old for being a martian. And you should tell me about the tech sometime. [Even if he'll meet Ami in a few days and find her compact computer and that'll be good enough for him.]
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It does, yes. I have several thousand years of memory, though generally I try not to think too hard on it. It's hazy at times, but I get flashes of deja-vu about silly things. And I have reflexes for things I shouldn't necessarily have. I've been an expert marksman with a bow since I was old enough to hold it, for example, even without training. And I can speak Martian, and sometimes I just know things I shouldn't know. Just to name a few things.
As for my age? My body is currently 18. But the Sailor Guardians like myself? Are effectively immortal. I won't appear to age much after I reach a certain point.
As for technology, I can show you some, later. But for now, you understand the basic framework of the tale I'm going to tell, yes?
[It's fantastic and mystical, yes...]
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I get it. So...go on.
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Even paradise has enemies, Hiro-kun. In this case, the Silver Millennium was opposed by a demon known as Metalia. It lived in the sun, inside a sunspot, I believe, and it fed on pain and suffering, using them to grow stronger. I don’t know much about it’s origins, I just know that it was very real, and very evil.
[There were a lot of things that she didn’t understand about Metalia and their enemies, but the origins of it were probably the most confusing.]
It used it’s power to corrupt the hearts of certain humans; A sorceress and four warriors who functioned as bodyguards for the Prince of the Earth chief among them. The Prince, the lover of the Princess of the Moon Kingdom, was the object of the sorceress’s desire and Metalia was able to turn that jealousy into control. The four warriors were mistrustful of us, due to our long lives and distant homes, and were easily tainted as well. Together with Metalia’s taint, they raised an army and assaulted the Moon Kingdom, burning and destroying it. During the battle, the Prince of the Earth was slain, and in her grief, the Princess took her own life.
[Rei’s fists ball up on the table, a sudden heat welling inside her. She hated that image, that thought, the end of something so great. It stung even now, thinking about how they had failed, all these eons later.]
The sorceress was slain by Venus, and Metalia itself took to the field. We…the four of us…were no match for her, empowered as it was by the suffering all around it, and we died as well. However the Queen of the Moon, Serenity, used her power to seal Metalia back inside the sun. It was not a complete seal, she knew, and with the last of her power, she ensured that the four of us, the Princess and the Prince would be reborn in the future. That…was my first death. I remember very little of it, as it was so very, very long ago.
[She’s leaving out any mention of the Outer Senshi, specifically Saturn and the role she had played in the final ending of the Silver Millennium. That was a frightening reality even for her, and if Hotaru Tomoe did arrive in Cerealia Rei would much prefer that she arrive without people already fearing her command of life and death.]
And I was reborn, in this body, on April 17th, 1978. As you know me now.
[Again, let’s open the floor for questions.]
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Humans had a lot of pain and suffering sometimes. It makes sense that it would manifest and feed a creature that would be used to target galaxies.]
But why wasn't there any way to fix the corruption? Of they were just sort of brainwashed...there had to be something. [It doesn't matter now, and in a way he knows it's disrespectful to ask. So he bows his head and goes quiet.] ...sorry. I...sorry.
[How very Romeo and Juliet. He's carefully monitoring Rei though as she continues.] If Metalia was sealed and you guys were reborn, and the magic that the Moon Queen or whoever used was only powerful enough to keep Metalia locked up in the sun...does that mean everything's going to repeat itself when the seal wears off? What about the rest of you? Were you all born again at the same time?
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[She takes a breath and continues answering questions. Slow and steady.]
We were reborn together, within a year of one another. I'm the oldest, born in April. The youngest was Jupiter, born in December. As for repeating itself?
[Well, he wanted to know.]
It already did, in a way. Metalia broke free in part, and revived it's minions. Beryl and the four bodyguards. And...we awoke slowly ourselves. The five of us, one by one. In the end, a lot of things happened.
The seal is back, and permanent, complete, and whole. Metalia is locked away for all time. We regained memories of our past lives as well. And...in the final battle we were killed defending the Princess. But it was a price I'd gladly pay, to save the world.
[Death two. But...she forestalls questions with a finger.]
It was a temporary state. The Princess, or as she's known in this age, Sailor Moon, has a powerful artifact. A vessel of near limitless power called the Ginzuisho. With that, she revived us, restored us, and we went on about our lives for a time.
[For a time.]
But see, Metalia? Is just the first enemy. That's just the beginning.
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So Sailor Moon only survived because you guys protected her and the seal in the sun was made whole so Metalia can't come back. And you guys came back without having to go through the rebirth cycle because of some thing that the princess had. Can it be used more than once? And what came after the Metalia?
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[Simple as that.]
And yes, it can be. It's used multiple times, of course. It's...really the most powerful object in our universe, as far as I know. I've never seen anything it couldn't deal with. But next.
[Shaking her head, Rei laughs a little, because this is going to be hard to believe.]
Nemesis came next, and the Black Moon Clan. A family of wicked beings similar to Sailor Senshi, from the tenth planet in the solar system. Nemesis. A planet made of black crystal, and protected by spells that obscure it from sight. It's impossible to view without knowing it's there, and that's why astronomers have never located it.
[Yes, she said tenth planet. So...lets just keep on going.]
And...what are your thoughts on time travel?
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Time travel's something some people are still working on at home and it's actually a cool concept, but what does it really have to do with Nemesis and the anti-Senshi or whoever they really are?
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[Rei’s lips twitch into a small frown as she tries to work out the best way to explain this.]
The Black Moon Clan, the rulers of Nemesis, are from our future. The 30th Century, as I understand it, and they have access to a powerful dark counterpart to the Ginzuisho simply called the Dark Crystal. I don’t know everything about them, because of how…time travel works, I haven’t quite gotten to that point yet, but what I do know is that they were originally rebels against Crystal Tokyo.
[She holds up a hand, trying to get through this before questions hit…]
As to what that is…well. This is how I know we are from entirely different worlds. At the turn of the 20th century, Sailor Moon and the Sailor Senshi transcended humanity with the help of the Ginzuisho. We more or less reawakened our past lives, divinity and power, all of us, and regained our full power while still retaining who we are. And Sailor Moon married her prince Endymion at last. [There’s a fond note there, even though she hadn’t seen the wedding yet.] The two of them took the throne of the Earth, unifying the world and creating a utopia, and transforming Tokyo into Crystal Tokyo. There was no war, no hunger, no death. Simply…I suppose you could call it paradise.
Only a dark power from outside was at work, a being known as Death Phantom. He tried to raise a rebellion against the Queen and as he was in a human body the Queen refused to kill him. Instead, she banished him to Nemesis and declared the planet off limits. There he became something…dark and evil after coming into contact with the taint of that place, and eventually his influence spread back to Earth. He brainwashed more civilians to fight against us, and was again defeated and the citizens were sent to Nemesis as well. That…became the origins of the Black Moon Clan.
[There may be a slight hint of disgust in her voice, something cold and angry. Disrupting something like that for personal greed...it infuriated her.]
They attacked again in earnest in the 30th century, waging a pitched battle for control of the Earth. [And then comes something weirder.]
And in a bid to protect her daughter as well as the Ginzuisho, the queen sent her daughter back in time with the crystal to stay with us for protection.
[Now, she’s seen Terminator. She knows how this sounds. So…she’ll pause there for Hiro to process
And the mun too.]no subject
Okay. [That's really all he can say at first because hooooo boy, Rei, that is a lot to wrap his big brain around.] Okay. So...Crystal Tokyo was basically utopia until this Death Phantom guy tried to destroy everything and got himself isolated. And then he was less isolated when the rest of his army joined him on Nemesis and so the Queen...Sailor Moon? I guess? Had a kid with the prince and so because she knew that the 30th century was in huge trouble she sent her daughter and the life-revival weapon back to the 20th century because she knew what was coming and wanted to prepare you guys.
Which means that the daughter was with you guys and a younger version of Sailor Moon...how'd that work out? [He's giving her a look, checking that his facts are right as he's trying to really force himself to believe all of this is 100% real.]
I'm so sorry for this infodump haha.
[Heh. He catches on quick, and she knows it sounds insane.]
Now, of course it wasn't so simple as that. The Black Moon Clan found a way to travel back after Sailor Chibi-Moon [Don't laugh that's her name] and...caused us a lot of trouble. We killed some of their agents, but they managed to capture myself, Mercury, and Jupiter and brought us back to the future. We...spent some time on Nemesis, in their dungeon...before Sailor Moon, Sailor Chibi-Moon, and Sailor Venus rescued us.
And...because this story isn't complicated enough, that's when another senshi arrived to help us. Sailor Pluto, the Goddess and Guardian of Time. She was able to send them forward in time to help us, and together with her and Sailor Chibi-Moon we managed to defeat the Black Moon and Death Phantom.
[Everything involved in this is so hard to swallow, she knows.]
And then we went back home, and everything settled for a while. A few months.
this canon is amazing.
And then after a few months...what? Something else, or you guys wound up here?
It's actually pretty insane isn't it?
Don't tell me you think we're anywhere close to finished.
[This one was a bit more complex...but simpler too.]
Well next, we started encountering more enemies. Different than the last, and heralded by mysterious visions. They too were ultimately attempting to gain control over the earth, under the direction of an alien entity from the Tau Nebula named Pharoah 90. I'm not sure why it was called that, but it send it's agents, the Death Busters, to Earth to gather the life energy of humans. We believe it wanted to turn the Earth into a haven for it's kind but ultimately all we could really tell is that it was an enemy.
It tricked a famous scientist, Souichi Tomoe, into making a deal with it in exchange for keeping his daughter alive and granted him the knowledge and skill to create some truly terrifying beings. And...turn both himself and his daughter into cybernetic fiends. We fought them, of course...and met some new allies.
Two more Outer Senshi. Sailor Uranus and Neptune. They joined us and worked with us to defeat the enemy. It was a difficult fight, given the beings involved, but we won in the end. [She's paraphrasing of course because she doesn't really want to talk about Mistress 9 and all of that.] And...discovered something else.
Tomoe's daughter was actually the reincarnation of one of our own. Sailor Saturn, the Guardian of Silence. she was much younger, twelve or so, at the time and with the help of Sailor Moon and the rest of us she regained her body and humanity. Ultimately, that was sort of a complete win for us. No deaths, and new friends.
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That accounts for all of the planets plus the small moon. The core group are Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. Saturn's the guardian of silence. Pluto of time. Uranus and Neptune showed up to fight against other aliens. People being different than other people thought and that is where things get complicated but sure. Reincarnation.]
...can I ask you something, Rei? All of the people these monsters and stuff hurt, do they remember all of this later? Did the scientist remember being tricked and the things that happened to them? How do you guys even keep all of this a secret with everything happening?
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[It's...basically complicated.]
The scientist, though? He died. He was so far gone, corrupted and evil by Pharoah 90 that he was an unavoidable casualty.
[He'd been kind of evil beforehand.]
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...but I think I get it. There were some things that happened back home that were unavoidable, too. People who were too corrupted to avoid being punished...but the punishment changed. I changed my mind.
That's all part of our job though. Making sure normal people can go on with their lives and not worry about stuff like that. I guess I'm just...sorry it happened for you guys. It's a lot to deal with on top of trying to be one of the normal people.
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[Resolve flows off her, eyes closing and a small smile creeping across her lips.]
But we’re not finished, of course. We’re not even at the finale, because I haven’t talked about Nehellenia and Galaxia yet. [A breath.] And they are by far the most dangerous beings I’ve ever encountered. Even here.
[Palms flat on the table, Rei goes on.]
The story of Nehellenia starts a few months after we recovered poor Sailor Saturn, during a solar eclipse. I was visited by visions of danger and trouble, which tends to signal the beginnings of a turbulent time, and so was Sailor Neptune. Snatches of memory started coming back to us, not just myself and Neptune, but all ten of us that were alive during the Silver Millennium. Memories of a story told to us by the Queen about something that happened on the day the princess was born. An enemy roughly the parallel of Queen Serenity herself, hailing from a kingdom buried beneath the moon’s surface, came before the Queen and denounced the Moon Kingdom and the nine planets that housed Sailor Senshi. She vowed to destroy us all, and claim the solar system as her own.
The Queen defeated her easily enough, sealing her inside a dark mirror and casting her back below the surface of the Moon, but not before Nehellenia cast a curse upon the Kingdom. She said the Princess would never take the throne, and the Kingdom would die. That…as you already know, occurred with the help of Metallia, but because she was trapped in the mirror she did not die when Sailor Saturn ended Metallia’s attack and the Queen cast our spirits forward to be reincarnated. [Which she may have forgotten to mention, whoops.]
Well...during the eclipse, the seal weakened, and she freed herself and set about attempting to make sure her curse came about, and steal the Ginzuisho. She send her agents, four lesser Senshi from moons or planetoids throughout the Solar System calling themselves the Amazon Quartet she'd enslaved with her power, along with her enforcers to Earth disguised as a circus and started causing trouble. Disappearances, attacks and skirmishes against us, that sort of thing. We...dealt with the Quartet and her other minions, but confronting her directly required help.
So, we did something we'd never done before. We returned to our castles on our respective homeworlds, and activated them to draw on more energy. I'm not sure if what I saw in Phobos and Deimos castle could be considered technology or magic, but the power from it...[Rei closes her eyes, remembering the way it flowed...] It was incredible. And that, combined with Sailor Moon's abilities was enough to put down Nehellenia once and for all. [Leaving out Helios, but...Helios is convoluted and hard to explain without directly talking about Chibiusa as...Chibiusa.]
In the end, she was cast down and unmade, never to return. And the Amazon Quartet was freed of their bond and sent forward in time to act as a Senshi Court for Sailor Chibi-Moon. A rather succinct story, this time, I think.
Any questions this time?
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[With a small laugh she shakes her head.]
You asked that tell you everything. It's not easy no, but it's not as though I don't expect you to tell me about your adventures too. That is, after all, a fair exchange.
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Right. Fair exchanges are...really fair. [Hiro what.] I think I'm ready for the last part and then I'll ask all of my questions.
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[Rei lowers her head. This was her second...well...third death, really.]
The final enemy was heralded by three arrivals. A group of strangers, Senshi from another galaxy. We called them the Sailor Starlights. They were around for a few months, as were some strange monsters that they seemed capable of fighting. And we thought they had brought them. We were wrong.
[Her eyes flicker around, and there's some evident discomfort.]
These monsters were brought by four evil beings, five ...Senshi from other worlds. They'd followed the Starlights, seeking out life and energy sources in the form of hearts, essentially. (Sailor Crystals). These five Senshi were people who killed their own homeworld's Sailor Senshi and stole their powers. Sailor Iron Mouse, Aluminum Seiren, Lead Crow, Tin Nyanko, and Heavy Metal Papillon. They attacked us eventually...and while they were destroyed, they weren't the real threat.
[Swallowing...]
Hiro-kun. In my world there is a woman who dresses all in gold, a being of immense evil. She's...more powerful than all of my friends combined, with the exception of Sailor Moon, and even then only with the help of the Ginzuisho. If you ever hear the name Galaxia, or Sailor Galaxia, in reference to someone here...I want you to run. I want you to stay as far away as you possibly can. Because she is something else.
[A breath.]
My final death was at her hands, beside Sailor Venus. She destroyed Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter with little difficulty. We were separated, but even together, I doubt that we'd have stood much chance. Maybe? But it's hard to say.
[Bowing her head, she finishes up.]
Sailor Moon defeated her, though, in a duel at the Galaxy Cauldron. A place where stars are born, and where all life stems. I know next to nothing about it, but I know that Sailor Moon destroyed her, and the being that gave her all that power. But...that's all I know, until we were reborn again.
[Allowing herself a small chuckle.]
After that? It was spring back home, I was about to start university in the fall, and Sailor Moon and the Prince were planning a wedding. Only one day, that all stopped and I woke up here.
aaaah Im sorry this is so late
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