Dark Light

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon.

A/N: Chapter 2 is up! I hope you enjoy it, and, as always, please review!

Chapter 2:

The time after the Silver Millennium was a precarious time; a time of change, as well as a time of uncertainty. Vast regions shifted and changed as the universe attempted to adjust to the new balance between good and evil, which, with the death of both Beryl and Serenity, was favoring the dark side.

After the Lunar Tragedy, as it was called, evil began to take over what was left of the former members of the Silver Alliance. Crawling out of the cracks and various places that evil vermin like to inhabit, the previous minions of Beryl formed an alliance of their own and began to take over planet after planet in an attempt to attain the power and greatness that Beryl had once possessed.

And, amazingly, they began to succeed. One after another, the galaxies surrounding the Sol System were overrun by the new evil alliance, which, oddly enough, was named Negaverse.

Century after century, they continued to spread their evil, until, about a thousand years after the Lunar Tragedy, they reached earth. To their extreme misfortune, however, they were not alone in deciding that the universe was to be conquered. Far above the earth, as they were maintaining orbit, they discovered a very nasty surprise.

Beryl, their former mistress, was alive. And not only that, she was completely and utterly pissed off. Especially when the morons, as she affectionately called her minions, protested that they were building up the alliance for her return. She, of course, didn’t believe them, and promptly took over by killing all the head morons present and threatening everyone left with death and dismemberment if they so much as thought about challenging her rightful place as ruler.

Naturally, everyone agreed quickly, given the fact that they were too scared to do anything else.

Once upon the throne, Beryl decided that it would be best to continue with her goal of universal domination by conquering the nearest planet, which, at the time, happened to be Earth. In her mind, conquering the planet was supposed to be easy, but after several weeks of attacking the warriors of that planet she found that it was quite the opposite.

The warriors, these Sailor Senshi, who were eerily similar to the senshi of the past, were extremely difficult to beat. She, naturally, knew that it would be easy to eliminate the senshi, but the fact that none of her midlevel minions could defeat them made her well…nervous. Especially with the fact that the fragments of the Silver Crystal were on the planet, and she had only managed to recover a few of them.

Minion after minion was sent out in an attempt to recover the fragments, until finally, one day she received help in the form of a small woman known only as Tsunai. As a minion of Hell she had been sent to Earth to cause general havoc in order to turn the planet to the dark side, but had soon realized that the easiest and less time consuming way was to offer her services to Beryl.

An offer was made and a deal was struck.

Tsunai would assist the minions in the battles against the senshi, and Beryl would give the Silver Crystal to Lucifer, the King of Hell, once she had finished with it.

And so it was that the next stage of the battle for Earth began once again. This time with a new player.

Present: The Hall of the Lost – Mercuria

Queen Diana sighed as she eyed the massive amount of paperwork in front of her. So much to do, and so little will to do it. Ever since the end of the Silver Alliance so long ago, it felt as if she was faced with more and more work every day. Which, as she thought about it, she probably was.

After Setsuna’s request, it had been a desperate scramble to hide her kingdom deep beneath the surface. What she hadn’t been able to hide had been covered by many illusion shields that were designed to make the surface look both uninhabited and hostile. She hadn’t really understood the request at the time; for all of them to hide their kingdoms from the rest of the universe, but now it made sense.

If they hadn’t, they would have been fighting Beryl long before now. And most likely all of their kingdoms would have been reduced to rubble. At least, this way everyone was safe, and she, as well as the other monarchs, could observe the evil activity in their system without anyone’s knowledge. It was the perfect tactic, but unfortunately, it separated them from their daughters as they waited for the defeat of the ultimate evil, whether it was Beryl or, more terrifying, someone much more powerful.

Diana squinted to read the print on one of the official looking papers. She could barely read the small print now without the help of glasses, which, she supposed, was a sure sign that she was finally starting to age.

Mercurians, as a rule, lived long lives that could extend to well over a few hundred thousand years. They, as well as everyone else in the system besides Terrans, were thought of as immortal by the members of the other galaxies, who had significantly shorter lifespans than they did. It wasn’t really a question of why the members of the Sol System had been granted this gift, but who gave them this ability to sail through time with almost the minimal amount of aging. Naturally, there had been a lot of speculation throughout the centuries, but so far no one had found an answer to the source of their long lives.

Frankly, Diana didn’t care. Sure she was starting to age, but she was only in what the Terrans would term the late twenties of her life. She had a long way to go before she passed on, and, as such, wasn’t required to worry about anything but her job, her life, and the upcoming battle between their daughters and the evil.

She sighed. It was difficult to sit here and wait for her daughter to conquer the evil, but she must. She just wished that somehow…she could help.

Even though she knew she couldn’t, still…

She sighed, and squinted at the papers again. Hmm….Import more simairum? She probably should. If she didn’t there would be less material available when one of the shields needed to be repaired.

Diana leaned forward and signed the document.

It was another day of work underneath the Mercurian surface, and no matter how much she wished to be on Earth right now, she was still here with a lot of work to do.

So, with a mental groan, she reached for the next document, her joints slightly popping as she did.

Meanwhile, on Earth…

Tsunai looked around the empty street, her eyes narrowed. Her prey was here somewhere. She could smell it. There was fear everywhere. It felt like she was surrounded by it.

Idiotic Sailor Senshi. If they would learn how to disguise their scent this hunt would be so much more fun.

And it was a hunt, no matter what her master said.

Her ice blue eyes narrowed even further as she caught a distinct trail heading towards the east. It was small, but it was there.

She mentally smiled as she began heading in that direction. This was far too easy.

Maybe she should have been easier on them in the initial fight. She thought about it, and then shook her head, her blonde hair waving slightly as she did so.

No. Being easy on them would only lessen the fun.

Plus, she already had some of the fragments that the viper queen wanted.

And, didn’t everyone always say that all work and no play was bad for you?

Tsunai bared her fangs slightly in her version of a grin.

She’d worked. Now it was time for play.

“Come out, come out wherever you are,” she called softly, as she headed after them at a nice easy pace.

There was no reason to rush, after all. The longer it took to catch them, the more afraid they became, which, in her mind, was good.

Very good.


End of Chapter 2!!

Hope you enjoyed it! Please review!!!