The Moon Dragon's Lair

LUNAR: The Lost Episodes

By Andy Beale

Volume Thirty-three: Episode 2-14.30 "Interactions in Real-Time"

Rated: R

Just outside Leninka, Chukot Province, Siberia, Planet Earth, Sol System, 8 March 2738

In the brief winter's day in the snows of southern Siberia Icdia Yatusf skied though the snow. He was tracking a group of rogue reindeer, which had broken away from the main herd. The tracks left in the snow brought him to the edge of a large clear patch in the forest. Bending down to follow tracks which seemed to skirt the edge of the clearing then back into the forest, Icdia looked down into the clearing, expecting to see reindeer taking advantage of the easier grazing in the partially melted snow. Instead he saw nothing immediately that looked like his reindeer.

It was then a movement caught his eye and he raised the binoculars suspended around his neck to his eyes. He brought them down quickly in shock. He saw a lopping four-armed creature, which he had never seen in the forests before. Pausing for a moment to think, he then turned around and disappeared back in the forest, reindeer forgotten. The Loongo tribe of Yuit had largely rejected the technological advances of the world and had returned to a simpler life, but they still remained in contact with it; and retained a communicator to contact the outside world, and he decided that this was something the outside world needed to know about.

Crystal Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, Sol system, 8 March 2738

The palace complex was quiet; this was not unusual, as the complex tended to be a haven of peace in amongst the various ministries and offices that made the administrative hub of the GM. What was unusual was the air of tension of the guards; their hands never straying far from weapon or communicator, ready to react at the slightest notice. The halls and rooms of complex were quieter, too; the normal groups of school children and adults that made tours around the more public parts were cancelled. The royal gardens, commonly busy at this time in the morning with people walking to and fro, were strangely deserted; the only movement was from royal gardeners, who waged their timeless battle of the structure of ordered gardens over the chaos of growth.

Looming over this scene was the Ellen Tsukino ballroom. Although small in stature compared to the lofty towers and spires of the palace, it seemed to have taken on an importance that overshadowed the rest of the palace. All its windows and doors were wide open, and the soft glow of supportive force fields was coming from within. Around it a mix of people of buzzed: examining, poking, and testing, all with a sense of urgency.

The people in the Primary Briefing Room also carried an air of tension, but mixed in with it was dose of uncertainty, a dash of depression and large side order of fatigue. At the head of the table the plush chair held a watchful King Endymion, who was regarding intently the presentation that Sailor Mercury was giving. To his immediate left was an empty chair for Sailor Mercury, then Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Magneta, Sailor Betelgeuse, Sailor Venus, Uranus Knight, Neptune Knight, Mercury Knight, and finally Mars Knight. Several of chairs were empty, providing space between the parties and allowing for others to join should there be a need. The table itself was a mess of cups, mugs and micrcomps. In front of Sailor Venus sat a panel, set into the table itself, to control the various screens and holo-projectors in the room.

At this moment the large central screen display changed to show a schematic of the various defense layers that hung over the moon, a single red line showing a breach passing right though all of them.

"It was one of the largest and most focused ghost effects we have ever seen," said Sailor Mercury, concluding her report on to what had happened. "Cut right though our shielding and opened a passage for less than two seconds, but for the DK it was enough to teleport though."

"How could this have been achieved?" asked Sailor Jupiter. "It would take hundreds of ghost torps to temporarily bring down the defense shields.”

"They had two advantages: firstly, they were inside the shield trying to go out, not outside coming in; and due to the physics of shield technology it’s easier coming out than in. Secondly, they only wanted to disable the teleportation blocking effect of the shields and not the whole spectrum of shield abilities; this led to fine tuning of the effect, which decreased the overall energy required." Sailor Mercury paused, and changed the display.

"As to how it was achieved: it was a two-part plan. The first part was embedded in the recent renovations to the state ballroom."

The image behind changed to show three blackened and broken marble window moldings lying on the floor, beside which were standard marking and measurement poles. A young red haired technician was included in the picture, holding a section of the worked marble which had been cut in two, revealing a hollow running the entire length of the stone; in which was filled with the blackened remains of… something.

"These stones are marble window frames used in the skylights of the ball room; four of them were found, under intensive scanning, to have been compromised; we have shipped them to the Skunk Works for analysis, but from initial examination it they appear to be a type of energy amplifier and/or resonator," concluded Sailor Mercury.

"Can you tell where they are from?" asked Uranus Knight.

"A materials scan revealed them to be made from materials native to this solar system. Our best guess is that the device was built with commercially purchased components, although the development work was done elsewhere. Most of the actual components were largely destroyed in use; hopefully a more detailed analysis will provide some further clues," answered Sailor Mercury.

King Endymion leaned forward in his chair. "When were these components emplaced?" he asked, resting his chin on his left hand.

"Probably before, or during, the final working of the stone, but definitely before the polishing," answered Sailor Mercury.

King Endymion’s eyes turned to Sailor Jupiter, who stood up and moved to stand next to Sailor Mercury.

"Due to the lack of marble here on the moon, we source most of our marble from Earth and a little from Mars; for the ballroom, Mr. Nguyen took marble from the Sforza Quarry, which is some 20 klicks north of Frosinone in Italy; he had used them successfully during his renovation of the Hague palace, the old home of the European Federal Republic. The stone was quarried and cut to shape there, and brought to the moon for final working and polishing." Sailor Jupiter sucked in her breath. "There has been an oversight here; the security and import restrictions on building materials is not as tight as it should have been. There is twenty-five thousand tons per year of movement of raw and finished building materials, and the screening of this material was only at a level to prevent smuggling of illegal products and people, and to prevention any cross contamination between the different planets. We are presently installing new procedures and equipment to screen these items better." She stood, back straight, awaiting censure, which never came, as with a wave of his hand King Endymion absolved her of blame.

"Have you investigated the quarry?" he asked.

With a nod, Sailor Jupiter handed the floor to Sailor Magneta as she and Sailor Mercury took their seats.

"Myself and Sailor Cerebra went to Frosinone and, with the local police, visited the quarry." She signaled to Sailor Venus, and the image changed, revealing a scene that appeared captured from a still of standard crime scene investigation camera. It showed the outside of a quarry site; a police hover-cruiser stood by the entrance of the vehicle park, which also had a number of hover and ground cars as well as a medium sized hover truck.

"We investigated the site, finding it deserted, even though there were vehicles outside." The image in the background changed, showing various shots of the quarry from the small dinning room to the shed were the stonemasons worked. “We found nothing until we entered the manager’s office.” The image shifted again to show a small office with a desk and small terminal. The walls and floor and some of the items on the desk were covered with what appeared to be dried blood; written in the blood on the wall was the word ‘Guasto’.

Sailor Magneta paused and then continued. "The blood distribution is consistent with someone being held in the middle of the room, and having their carotid artery severed. DNA samples taken from the blood prove it to be from Gian Galeazzo Sforza, the owner of the quarry. The blood had been deposited some two and half to three hours before our arrival. Our searches turned up nothing else relating to the workers at the quarry or the location of the three laborers that were registered there. We then questioned the twelve families of the quarry workers, who had all seen their loved ones off to work that day and thought or heard nothing unusual. The local police have opened a missing person’s enquiry for the workers, with the option of expanding it up to a full murder inquiry, as well as a full murder inquiry for the killing of Mr. Sforza."

"A dead end, then?" commented Mars Knight.

"Unless we or the local police come up with some more evidence, yes," replied Sailor Magneta, taking her seat.

"What of Mr. Nguyen?" asked Neptune Knight, attempting to find another way to solve the problem.

"There is no sign of him," commented Uranus Knight. "All searches have come back negative. Last reported sighting was 21 February of this year, when he was seen boarding a private hoverfloat, to travel to Bells Island, a resort island a hundred klicks north of Pago Pago. We have had no activity on any of his accounts, and no visits to his Paris Studio. We assume that he has been killed or kidnapped; probably the former."

"In relation to him, the travel agent that sold him the vacation, a Miss Sarah Doyle, committed suicide before our investigators got to her. Apparently she jumped from the top of an eight story building, death due to head trauma. We have no physical evidence to doubt it was suicide, but her friends reported a happy person with no financial or personal problems, or any family history of instability; again the police are holding an open verdict on the case, but have released the body to the family," put in Mercury Knight.

"It sounds like we have someone or something out there who firmly believes in the old adage ‘a dead man tells no tales,’" commented Sailor Jupiter; several of the other Senshi and Knights nodded grimly in agreement.

King Endymion moved things on. "What about Ambassador Xerih’te? Any clues from his movements and actions?"

"According to the staff at the diplomatic mission, Ambassador Xerih’te was acting normally, and they were just as shocked as we were when the demonstration happened. Certainly nothing like that had been authorized by his government, or would have been, if they had been asked. They have, in response to this, sent their humblest apologies, and shelved any further Bentax Belt question discussions until the arrival of the new ambassador," replied Sailor Venus.

"Which will, no doubt, take a couple of months for him to get here, and then there will be delay for ‘settling in to post’ before anything else gets done; leaving us with twenty different companies complaining at us for not getting things moving faster," commented Mars Knight, who having been heavily involved in working out the Bentax question, and was not looking forward to going back to it.

"I will get the Queen herself to explain to the companies what’s happening; that should keep them quiet for a time," offered Endymion, then paused for a second. "What happened to the Ambassador anyway? Are we any further on that?"

Sailor Mercury answered that. "A better way of asking that is ‘what happened to the Ambassador, Slashers, and Alkons?’ The answer to that seems to be some sort of direct matter to energy conversion, or an enforced string notation change." At the rapidly growing blank looks around the room she smiled slightly, and then elaborated. "Some sort of technology- or thaumaturgy- caused a very small percentage, probably less than 0.00001% by mass, of the matter in their bodies to change to energy. Until forty-eight hours ago I would have not believed it myself, but the evidence we have now makes it clear that it is possible."

"How was that done?" came the question from Sailor Betelgeuse, who had been quietly following the conversation.

"The best guess is it was a form of organic technology that brought about the effect, which leads to an interesting conclusion: that the DK has discovered or has acquired some new organic technology; the appearance of Slashers, Alkons, and Doppelgangers pointed to this, but the appearance of such a radical, advanced organic technology pretty much confirms it," explained Sailor Mercury.

"Why didn’t we detect it?" was Mars Knight's question.

Sailors Jupiter and Mercury both sighed and then smiled at each other. "Organic technology has been, and still is, damn difficult to detect," Sailor Jupiter began; and then Sailor Mercury continued.

"I am hoping that some of the sensor systems that are currently being developed will provide the answer to this problem."

"Time for deployment?" asked Endymion.

"Two to three months," answered Sailor Mercury, holding up her hand. "And yes, that is the fastest we can do."

Every one sat back in their chairs with a communal sigh. It was at that point the briefing room chime rang.

"Palace catering, efficient and timely as ever," commented Endymion, pressing a button to allow entry.

Just outside Leninka, Chukot Province, Siberia, Planet Earth, Sol System, 8 March 2738

Two AKL-HoverSlicks came in low, down the valley, and silently came to land in a clearing. The backs opened, and a stream of men and women came running out, establishing a cordon. Commander Ryurik Svyatoslav of the Chukot SWAT team, watched with pride in his men and women’s efficiency. With the landing zone secure he then signaled to his point troops to lead the way, and the squad moved off towards the objective. He had taken the report from the reindeer herder with some trepidation; such things did not happen in his part of the world, and he had rapidly assembled his team and set course for this remote corner of northeast Russia.

Crystal Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, Sol system, 8 March 2738

The Primary Briefing Room

A small oriental woman with dark blue hair entered the room, pushing a small trolley of drinks and cakes, which she began to serve. Behind her a taller man came in, and began to remove the cups and plates left on the table. In addition to the palace staff uniform, both of them wore a black armband wrapped around their right arm, a reminder that one of the catering staff had been killed in the attack two days ago.

For a few moments the acquiring of drinks and nibbles diverted everyone in the room. As the door closed behind them, everyone returned to business.

Sailor Venus, looking up from her large hot chocolate with marshmallow bits, asked, "I saw that you have force field generators in the ballroom; what’s the story with that?"

There was a pause, and then Mercury Knight spoke. "The physical damage is more extensive than we first feared. The energy burst has altered the structure of some of the materials involved, making it about as strong as tissue paper. This has compromised the structural integrity of one of the two primary roof support spars. Thankfully the designer of the building," he smiled at Sailor Mercury, "over-designed both roof spars, so if one was damaged the roof would remain intact. The problem is we ourselves damaged the other spar in the Third Lunar-Nega War, ironically when we had a misfired Mark 3 Phoenix torpedo, and the repair was rushed. It was fine while the other spar was intact; but now, however, it leaves the roof, well, not dangerous... but damaged enough to require force fields to hold up the roof structure for safety’s sake."

"Recommendations?" asked Endymion.

Mercury Knight looked uncomfortable. "The Royal Architect Corps recommends we remove the whole roof and start over."

Sailor Venus, on the other side of the room, winced visibly. "That’s going to be expensive!" she commented quietly, having listened to Artemis complain over the years when he was the royal treasurer.

Mercury Knight nodded. "Two million credits is the current estimate for the roof alone, and since we had just spent over a million refurbishing, the interior will probably cost that again, plus a bit more. On the plus side, apart from one exception," he said, looking across at Sailor Jupiter, who grinned back at him, "all of the art objects and paintings survived will little or no damage. All these items have been removed and placed in storage or taken to the conservers for damage assessment and repair. Several museums around the system have been in contact about displaying some of the pieces while we are rebuilding."

"That’s probably not a bad idea," said Sailor Betelgeuse. "A little bit of good publicity never goes amiss."

Endymion paused for a moment. "Sailor Betelgeuse, can you arrange that? It’s only right people get to see some of the art we have acquired over the years. What are the people saying about what has happened?"

"The mood is very calm, actually; having yourself and Neo-Queen Serenity the First appear in public so quickly after the event stopped many rumors from starting, and so the population has not been too stressed. The GM Today had a very good article about how you are more likely to take your own life or have an accident in a hovercar than be a victim of DK aggression, so the population as a whole remains calm, if a little surprised," answered Sailor Betelgeuse. "We are attempting to quietly play the whole thing down as a ‘lucky’ attack, and nothing to be worried about."

"Pictures in the public domain only come up to the initial demonstration by the Miraxic ambassador; all of the data streams were cut at the first appearance of the Slashers, and the minute delay loop took care of the rest," added Sailor Venus. "So none of the fight or the aftermath came out."

"Well at least one thing went right that day. What about the casualties?" King Endymion asked.

Sailor Jupiter’s look turned serious. "We have eighteen confirmed dead at the scene, three pronounced dead on arrival at hospital, with one dying last night in intensive care. A further thirty-six are in the hospital, five in critical condition. We also have twenty former hostages in a catatonic state; some sort of mind control was in use, and when they were severed from their controller, they fell into that condition. Doctor Hushovd and his team will be investigating, but they are overstretched at the moment; he promises that the victims are in no danger from waiting. Our other casualties consist of fifty-two people with minor wounds, mostly from shock and flash blindness from the explosion, all of whom have now been discharged from hospital. We have one missing person, Archmage Cahokia, who was last seen near the site of the explosion, but we have yet to find any trace of him. Also hurt was one of our new friends from the Federation, Susan Hajkowski, brought into hospital exhibiting physical and psychological trauma; after a night’s rest and observation, she was discharged."

Sailor Mercury spoke up. "It seems that she was to blame for the counter-thaumaturgic field, but the amount being thrown around the room at the time was starting to overload her."

King Endymion looked across at Sailor Mercury with a disbelieving look. "Sailor Mercury, how is that possible? We have not encountered anyone who can do anything like that… and thaumaturgic energy is, as has already been stated by the Federation members themselves, far more prevalent here."

"She told Sailor Macros the story, and she passed on the basics," said Sailor Jupiter. "Apparently in order to save Susan’s life, she was exposed to an ancient force known as the ‘EarthWind’; as well as saving her life, it changed her into what they call a ‘wild psi-talent,’ and this is were she gets this energy absorbing ability from. The only other effect seems to be that she is extremely lucky in games of chance, and other occurrences where random chance has some effect."

"Weird!" commented Sailor Betelgeuse. "Wonder if she would come with to Las Vegas with me?"

"They have already banned her from coming within fifty klicks of the place," noted Uranus Knight absently. "She cleaned out a casino in Atlantic City, and another in Blackpool; and Las Vegas and the other Free City Act locations all caught wind of her and banned her, for ‘using unspecified unfair advantages.’"

"Damn," said Sailor Betelgeuse, sitting back in her chair.

"Our friends from the Federation are making a bit of a name for themselves," commented Mars Knight. "I wonder if we should be concerned about that?"

"Oh?" queried King Endymion, inviting Mars Knight to continue.

Mars Knight’s face twisted. "Last night myself and Sailor Mars were meditating by the fire and she commented on the sense of chaos and confusion that seem to surround them."

"Good chaos or bad chaos?" asked Sailor Jupiter.

"I asked Raye that question myself, but she could not expound on it any further. It was just one of those feelings."

"Uranus Knight?" asked King Endymion, knowing he knew much about his wife’s role in LISA.

"They have followed every rule we have asked of them, although they take great delight in playing with our surveillance teams; such as using them to carry shopping bags, getting them to run wild goose chases, and in one case, causing injury," said Uranus Knight.

"Causing injury?" asked Sailor Magneta, looking concerned at that report.

Uranus Knight looked slightly embarrassed. "Susauman managed to get around behind one of our people without being noticed, and when she said ‘BOO’ in his ear, he jumped so fast he knocked himself out on a low beam. She was very apologetic, and picked him up and took him to a hospital herself."

King Endymion sat back in his chair. Comments from Sailor Mars were always taken seriously, for too many times had they proven to be valuable pointers to future events; even so, in King Endymion’s mind, no alarm bells were going off.

"So what we have here is a group of well meaning people with a slight problem with authority, not unlike like a few people in this room in their time, who so far have saved lives both here and on Archid Beta. Is LISA maintaining a watch on them?" he asked.

"Yes, standard level 3 observation," answered Uranus Knight.

"Maintain that level for now, and inform me of anything suspicious. Mars Knight, would you ask Sailor Mars for me to attempt to clarify what she is seeing, just to make sure. I have a feeling that it’s nothing, but I just want to make sure."

Before anyone else could comment any further, Nirvana, the Palace AI, interrupted the proceedings.

"Excuse me for interrupting, but I am receiving a transmission from Asian sector control that I think I should bring to your urgent attention. The man in the field speaking is Commander Ryurik Svyatoslav."

The screen changed, and two two-dimensional images appeared: one was of a man dressed in white artic clothing, with a group of others behind him lying flat, pointing rifles down a hill at something. The second image showed the rather less than flattering view of some one’s backside as it crawled towards a rock outcrop. A Russian accented voice came out over the speakers.

"Yes, sector control, we are attempting to gain positive ID of the hostile. But it does look from here like we have a Slasher here."

Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Magneta looked at each other; Sailor Magneta prepped herself to move but remained into her seat by a signal from Sailor Jupiter.

"Sector Control here, please confirm sighting ASAP, as we have high-level command interest in the hostile," came another voice.

"Can I talk to them?" asked King Endymion.

"You can now," said Sailor Venus, pushing her control panel, which emitted a soft beep.

"Commander Svyatoslav, this is King Endymion," he began. The commander’s face took on a quick look of shock, which was rapidly replaced by a cool, professional look. "Can you confirm to me what you are seeing?"

"Your Majesty," said Svyatoslav. "We had a report from a reindeer herder of a ‘strange four-armed beast’ roaming the countryside. When we arrived we found what appears to be a Slasher patrolling around an old mushroom farm. I am trying to get two men within range for some more detailed readings. We don’t want to go in guns blazing and find out it’s the students from Anadyr University playing a trick on someone."

"Commander, if you are correct, I want you to withdraw your men to a safe distance and observe the target; we have a specialist team to deal with such problems," said King Endymion; then he smiled. "Of course, if it is students playing around, you have my full permission to give them a shock."

"Gladly, your Majesty, on both counts," answered Svyatoslav.

The other image now went black; a quiet expletive was heard, and the image returned, showing a close detail of a rock. Then it was moved though a small evergreen bush, and then emerged, out of focus, which rapidly corrected, showing an image of a blocky house, clear of snow. To one side was a small, battered hover truck. In the foreground there appeared to be the remains of some sort of garden, now terribly overgrown; to the far left was a large pile of something, which appeared to be steaming slightly in the weak sunlight. A few moments later a hulking figure came from behind the hover-truck. A marker appeared on the figure, and statistics for range, speed, and vector appeared attached to the marker. As it came fully out of the long shadow, the unmistakable profile of a Slasher was revealed. Various other statistics came across the screen.

Sailor Mercury watched the information with interest, then her eyes widened. "Turn it off!" she cried out.

"What?" blinked Sailor Jupiter.

"Their sensor is in active mode; Slashers can detect active sensor scans!" she exclaimed.

It was too late; the Slasher had locked eyes on the location of the two men and started to rapidly advance towards them.

Sailor Jupiter looked at Sailor Magneta and said, "go!"

Sailor Magneta bowed to King Endymion and then ran out the door as fast as it would open, already talking into her link.

Commander Svyatoslav, however, took immediate action. "Ivo, Rani," he shouted down his link, “run for it! All fire teams lay down covering fire!"

The now abandoned sensor showed the Slasher as the first high density plasma bullets landed around the Slasher, causing the snow to vaporize with a loud hiss and clouds of steam; a few of the shots nicked the Slasher ineffectually. It turned away, and headed out of the sensor’s view as weapons fire continued to rain down.

Meanwhile, Commander Svyatoslay had picked up the communicator he had been using, and had come up to the firing line; he dropped the communicator down, showing down the slope. The sound pick up caught the sounds of cries and the sound of automatic rifle fire and the command ‘time on target.’ The Slasher came into view of the sensor; the command "Fire!" came clearly over the speakers. The image then showed the Slasher being hit by tracers and staggering under the hail of plasma bullets. It convulsed and then fell smoking into the snow, with small spurts of flames coming out of its back.

"Commander," called King Endymion over the sounds of jubilation. After a brief pause, Commander Svyatoslav came back into the picture.

"Your Majesty," he said with proud grin on his face.

"Seal off the area," Endymion commanded. "Our specialist team is coming in to investigate."

"Yes, your Majesty," answered the Commander; and he turned to talk to someone behind him. Abruptly both pictures went out; the message ‘signal lost’ appeared on the screens.

"What?" muttered Sailor Venus, accessing her controls.

King Endymion went pale as a wave of pain and despair came over him; he slumped heavily into his chair.

"Your Majesty?" inquired Mars Knight and Uranus Knight, coming to their feet. Sailor Mercury produced her computer and began to scan him, and then Nirvana interrupted again.

"We have an image from one of the defense grid satellites." The main screen changed, showing a section of Earth’s surface under magnification; already on this screen was a growing red and orange mushroom cloud rising silently into the sky. After a pause, Nirvana spoke again. "Raising neutrino count confirms a matter-antimatter detonation. Confirmed, ground zero: Ibizic Mushroom farm, Leninka, Chukot Province, Siberia. Estimated yield: 3.5 megatons.”

There was another pause, and then Nirvana spoke again. “Casualties unknown at this time.”

Place Unknown, Date Unknown, Time Unknown

Sailor Pluto wiped her tongue across cracked dry lips; the only taste she got was the grit from the sand, and the bitter taste of salt from the baked depression she was crossing, mixed with the metallic tang of her own blood. The wind gusted again and blew some more sand and salt into her eyes, causing them to sting yet again; she held up her left hand to protect her eyes from the wind; she paused until the gust had died down. Then she began again to move forward toward the ridge of hills and mountains that bordered the depression. For three blistering hot days under two suns, and freezing nights with no moons, she had been here. Her uniform was now torn and winkled, her skin and hair covered in the fine dust of the depression, and here and there dust- clogged dried patches of blood stood out against skin and uniform.

No, she was not alone here; strange sand monsters, an ancient, forgotten army of Queen Beryl’s youma, combat robots from another age, and just recently a field of zombies all wearing the faces of friends had attacked her. As the last Deadly Scream had destroyed the rotting body of her queen, she had been tempted, oh so tempted, to slip back into the time stream, reappear at Pluto Palace, to eat, have a bath and sleep.

But if they were out there, the need to talk to them overrode such concerns; or perhaps the information she had was wrong or simply out of date, as it had been many thousands of years since it had been recorded.

At the top of a dune she looked across towards the mountains. "They seem closer," she whispered though cracked lips, and started to move down the dune. Suddenly, her footing gave out and she tumbled down the slope, unable to stop, only to come to the halt at the foot of the dune. Groaning, she sat up and looked around to where she had dropped her staff, only to find it being handed to her by a six-fingered hand.

The strangely human figure was dressed in a white robe, its eyebrow-less eyes gleamed, and its face smiled. "Welcome, daughter of Cronos," it said with a strange voice that sounded like a choir.

Sailor Pluto’s eyes widened, and then she smiled though her parched lips; they were here and she had found them: the Ascended. Perhaps she would finally get some answers.

To be continued...