Near Moon Kingdom, Mare Serenitatis, Luna
992 CE

Upon the pecks surrounding the lunar basin known as Mare Serenitatis, waited a man with an air of darkness around him. Junseino Makurayami grinned inwardly at the tall shining palace and town sweeping through the plain below.

"They must have the crystal in there." Makurayami thought as he gazed at the palace. "Get the crystal and Master Pharaoh 90 will reward me after he invades." Makurayami reached out to the side and pulled at the air surrounding him. A slight rip appeared beside him as the dark lord brought his arm across his chest. The air shroud covered him and he faded from view.

After a few steps, Makurayami slipped and tumbled halfway down the slope. When he came to a stop his left arm felt numb. "Blasted natural fortress." he muttered, pulling out a sharp moon rock that had pierced through his arm. The Tau Ceti citizen glanced at the blood dripping from the wound and winched as the pain reached his senses. "If only I could just transport straight into the palace, but they would detect me." He trembled as he discarded the blood covered rock then continued his climb down the crater wall towards the town and the shining crystal moon palace at its center.

Princesses Mars and Mercury roamed the frontiers of the moon kingdom in their senshi fuku. It was their turn to patrol the frontier as part of their duties to the defence of the Silver Millennium's capital. After passing the halfway point of the patrol, Mercury looked up from her computer and smiled. "Everything looks nice and quiet. Think so Mars?"

"Perhaps." replied Mars while gazing intently towards the distant mountains and the black starry sky above. "I hope Jupiter and Serenity are having more fun at the skating rink."

Mars looked towards the mountains again as she and Mercury turned towards the nearby park.

Midway through the park, Mars stopped suddenly and looked around randomly. A short distance ahead, Mercury stopped and looked back towards her companion. "Mars? Is something wrong?"

"I felt something... I think something just brushed past me. There is evil nearby and..."

A blinding flash in the sky cut her off. Both senshi looked up towards a rapidly closing hole in space while a shadow began to slowly creep across the ground.

Makurayami almost laughed as he moved, undetected, past two of the Moon's defenders and into the grounds of the palace itself. Only minutes from entering the palace, Makurayami stopped. Feeling a shiver down his back of something dangerous approaching, he looked towards the sky as a shadow crept across the ground. Slowly, his gaze met with a point of light which was rapidly growing larger. His eyes went wide as the light became a dim fireball. Then he felt nothing as the fireball slammed right into his body, vaporizing it with enough force to blow his mind 1000 years into the future...

Azabu Juban, Minato, Tokyo, Japan
Late November, 1996

As far as the eye could see, in all directions was nothing but blackness and stone. Everything was covered by an eerie purple-red light, nothing lived and there was no sound, until... groaning like sounds began to vibrate through the street as a large black mass tore at the stone while it moved closer.

Suddenly the near silence was broken by a rapid tapping. Hard leather school shoes chipped at the stone covered road, running from the blackness behind. Black-blue hair rushed in the wind as the girl turned back to face the oncoming mass. Gasping, she almost fell into a group of stone statues.

"Ami-chan. Help me." Hoshi stared into the cold stone face of her friend. "Rei-san, Makoto, Minako, Usagi. Chibiusa. Help." The stone figures remained in their unmoving state looking towards the coming end.

The wind picked up as a bright blue light appeared nearby. Hoshi covered her eyes as she tried to look into the light. More buildings fell apart as the spinning black mass took them into itself.

The light condensed into a shining light blue crystal, which hovered high over Hoshi's head.

"Please, help us." Hoshi screamed at the crystal. It remained for a moment before shooting off into space. Hoshi fell to her knees crying out "No..." Behind her, the blackness shattered the statues of her friends, the fragments flying all around her.

The blackness came closer and closer until it stopped right in front of her. The black mass slowly grew smaller until it took on the form of a tall man covered in the black light of the dead world. Hoshi looked up with fear in her eyes as he grinned and pointed a pale hand at Hoshi.

"Bringer of Silence..." mumbled the man, drilling his blue eyes straight through Hoshi's soul.

He flicked his wrist allowing a knife to appear from his long sleeve. Hoshi's eyes grew wide, and then the world was covered in silence again. Except for the dripping of blood on the cold dead stone road.

Hikawa Shrine

Purple eyes snapped open as the door to the room slid open.

"Come on Hoshi-chan. We're almost running late, you don't want to turn into Usagi do you?"

Hoshi rolled over to see the paper like inner walls of the Hikawa Shrine. She groaned to herself at the thought of spending yet another full day living with Rei. Hopefully the insurance on her old apartment would come soon and let her move into a new building. Rei was alright as a friend, but her insistence that she train her mind was getting bothersome.
Hoshi's eyes darted across towards the door to see Rei peering into the guest room, "No. Not at all, I wouldn't want to put you through that sort of stress." Hoshi mumbled to the raven haired girl standing in the doorway with a forced giggle. "I'll be there in a few minutes." Rei nodded and hastily closed the door.

Hoshi rubbed her eyes and rose from the futon before starting to look through her small suitcase for her uniform. "The Silence? We stopped that..." thought Hoshi as she finished straightening her T*A uniform.

Trying to shake off her feelings of impending danger, Hoshi slid the door open. "Rei. I'm ready."

Together the girls left the shrine walking towards Juuban Junior High School for a practise entrance test. Rei kept glancing towards Hoshi with concern while Hoshi looked straight ahead quietly. While moving past an abandoned building, Hoshi stopped and stared at the windows.

After a few more steps, Rei noticed Hoshi falling behind. Doubling back towards her friend, Rei asked softly "Hoshi, are you alright?" When she didn't answer, Rei tapped Hoshi's shoulder. "Shi-chan?"

"The Death Busters... We did beat them didn't we?" Hoshi asked quietly.

"Yes. Of course we did. Hotaru is safe, Mistress 9 and Master Pharaoh 90 were sealed out of the galaxy. Why do you ask?"

"It's just..." Hoshi trailed off, not wanting to admit to Rei that their so called training sessions were working, "I... I had a premonition last night... the Silence..." Hoshi shook it off and smiled "but like you said. We beat them. Nothing to worry about." With a light laugh, Hoshi turned away from the building, "We better hurry otherwise Usagi will get there before us." Hoshi grinned before running towards the school.

Rei frowned, staring after Hoshi with slight alarm. 'Something's going on. I should do a reading later.' Rei thought, before joining Hoshi as she sped down the path.

The crack of an ivory walking stick echoed through the darkened circus tent as Zirconia stepped onto her podium. "Where have those girls gotten to now. Come out."

Zirconia was interrupted by a crackling of small fireworks flashing through the darkness below. Which was then followed by a voice from above. "What's up?"

Looking up, Zirconia could see the quartet standing on a floating platform. "Get down here. NOW!"

With a slight moan, the four girls jumped down throwing one last set of fireworks. "Just like you to walk in on the middle of practice."

"I don't care what you were doing. Just follow my orders." Zirconia flew off the peak of the ivory stick and towards the girls, "This is the next target." a photo of a young girl with pink hair and holding an ice cream appeared in mid air.

The quartet each pulled at the photo trying to get a view. "Eh.. Pink hair?"
"What's wrong with pink. She's cute."
"So she has the golden mirror?"
"I don't care if she has the mirror, I want that ice cream."

"Shut up. Go and do your job and stop wasting time playing around." Zirconia yelled before she disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I'll take this one." Cerecere said as she quickly grabbed hold of the photo.

Three voices quickly yelled, "And just why do you get to?"

Cerecere giggled as she pulled out a pink and purple flower, "You need to calm down."

JunJun stepped forward, pointing at the flower, "We're not going to fall for that again."

"This? Oh, no. It's not a sleepy flower." replied Cerecere as she tossed it into the air. Vines exploded from the flower and wrapped around the other girls. "It's an Amazon binding flower. It binds you together."

After the rest of the quartet had been bound together, Cerecere picked up the photo smiling.

Walking out of the Bob-Floy Soft Ice Cream Shop, three girls in school uniform, each holding two Ice cream cones, resumed talking.

"...oh, the test? They said I got 72." Makoto grinned with happiness, "What about you Rei-chan?"

"81, not that it matters. I was only there because Usagi would complain if I wasn't." replied Rei as she rolled her eyes slightly. Next to Rei, Hoshi seemed a little distant as if in a trance. "Hoshi? How was the test?"

"Ah. Hai. It would have been a good practise for Usagi-chan and Minako-chan. I got 99. Ami-chan beat me again."

Makoto and Rei looked at Hoshi in surprise, "You... you mean you're depressed over a one percent?" Makoto asked in a wavering voice.

"No. That's not that, it's..." replied Hoshi as she trailed off looking towards their waiting friends in the park.

Rei and Makoto heard a gasp from Hoshi, followed by her ice cream falling from her grasp.

"I can't believe I failed that test." Usagi moaned as she turned the corner into the park.

"Then you should study more." replied Luna quickly as she rested on Ami's shoulder. To which Ami nodded.

"What are my parents going to say." cried Usagi as she fell onto a park bench.

"Don't worry about that. What's Mamoru-san going to say? Maybe he won't kiss you goodnight anymore." Minako said with a slight giggle as she made kissing motions towards Usagi.

Usagi had just opened her mouth to reply when Chibiusa jumped onto the bench next to Usagi. "Baka Usagi. You need to study more." said Chibiusa, holding an old test paper with a 100 marked in red in the top corner up towards Usagi.

"How long have you been...," Usagi turned to look at the rustling piece of paper. "100?? When did you have a test?"

"I didn't. This is an old test." said Chibiusa with a smile. Ami started giggling behind Minako as Usagi face faulted. "Where are Mako-chan and the others?"

"Chibiusa-chan, they went ahead to get some ice creams. They'll be here soon." Ami quickly replied, pre-empting any comments from Usagi.

Behind a nearby fountain Cerecere appeared in a shower of flower petals. Peering around the fountain, she watched a pink haired girl jump up onto a park bench besides a small group of other girls. "That's her." thought the amazon as she saw Chibiusa.

"Would you like to play a game?" asked Cerecere, walking out from behind the fountain. The girls turned to face Cerecere as she tossed a yellow ball into the air and pulled a cue out of subspace. Watching Chibiusa carefully, the pink amazon aimed the ball at her target.

Hoshi, Makoto and Rei watched the trapeze artist appeared in a shower of pink flower petals. In shock, they dropped their icecreams before reaching into their pockets.
"Mars Crystal Power..."
"Jupiter Crystal Power..."
"Caloris Crystal Power..."
"Make Up!!"

Their ice cream forgotten, the three senshi ran into the park.

Cerecere moved her cue back to take the shot. "A nice..," started Cerecere as a black ball moved towards the cue. "sho..huh?" the ball slammed into the cue, knocking it from Cerecere's hands. She looked up as she heard a shout from above her. Standing on a branch above the amazon were a number of senshi looking down at her.

"You can not be forgiven for harming innocent people. In the name of Mars," Sailor Mars jumped from the tree, landing in front of Chibiusa.
"Caloris," added Sailor Caloris as she joined Mars.
"And Jupiter," replied Sailor Jupiter as she landed.
"We will punish you." They finished together.

"But I haven't even done anything yet." cried Cerecere.

"No. I have." came a dark sounding voice a few meters away.