With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[boo600]

Oooh. Sailor Venus. Sailor Mercury like the planet! Sailor Moon-. I… Suddenly wish I actually knew something about the series.

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Wait. Paul pushed Artemis into wearing a canonically accurate SM costume… and he isn't even a fan of the series?

I mean, I bounced off the first episode hard, and know basically all of what I know about it from Dungeon Keeper Ami, the Dark Lords of Nerima, and of course, Ryuugi and his rants/fics like Queen of the Moon and Lovehammer. Not really knowing SM isn't really a flaw, however many people feel it's a classic. But he insisted on keeping her skirt short and it wasn't even fandom pedantry?

I mean, I guess it was regular pedantry, but damn, early Paul and Artemis were creepy as fuck, huh? Even once the Wager Incident was over.

It's probably for the best that she never finds out his real age.

 

[Chaoswind]

I wish I'd watched Sailor Moon (subbed?) instead of Negima as a boy. I'm not sure if I'd give up much of the other Funimation shows that introduced me to anime...

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Negima is actually peak, the problem is that the anime is a shit adaptation that only focused on the first volume of the manga and played the pervert angle way too hard in order to sell figurines.


My avatar is literally the best character in Negima and amongst my favorite characters in fiction and I compare him to the likes of Flash or Spiderman.

 

[Lurking Shade]

What is it with Sailor Scouts having (usually) one-sided crushes on men who are too old for them? Is it like a tradition, or something?

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It's more a Sailor Venua thing iirc, because of the anime changing Mamoru's age from 16 anyway.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Wait. Paul pushed Artemis into wearing a canonically accurate SM costume… and he isn't even a fan of the series?

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He didn't push her, he offered and she didn't think it would be quite that accurate.

Not really knowing SM isn't really a flaw, however many people feel it's a classic. But he insisted on keeping her skirt short and it wasn't even fandom pedantry?

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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23_WMMZV6m0

 

[Wivk]

Maybe it IS schlock for those female authors, and they're attracted to men who are much older than themselves?

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Older men, besides being physically larger and more powerful than boys, are more mature, have found their purpose, have established roles in society, have experience in sex and relationships, have houses and cars and a 401k. They have also had time to live off screen that could make them interesting or mysterious.

This is why the 300 year old vampire is the ideal mate most women are looking for. He keeps his youthful vitality and virility on top of all the benefits of age.

 

[Neruz]

What is it with Sailor Scouts having (usually) one-sided crushes on men who are too old for them? Is it like a tradition, or something?

Come to think of it, didn't the main heroine of Cardcaptor Sakura also initially have a crush on a boy who was way too old for her too? Is this a common occurence for Magical Girls?

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I would say it's old male writers writing schlock for themselves but I think most of the seinen genre and magical girl writers are actually women so...I guess that fantasy isn't as one sided as I thought?

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Maybe it IS schlock for those female authors, and they're attracted to men who are much older than themselves?

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It's not at all uncommon for younger women to be interested in older men, the reasons for such are sometimes debated amongst psychologists, but the usual explanation is that older men tend to be wealthier and more stable, thus making them better propositions than younger men who haven't gotten their shit together yet.

I had the impression that having crushes on older people was fairly common for teenagers in general.

Yes, that includes me. Even though I didn't recognize it at the time.

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It's less common with younger men towards older women, but definitely by no means unheard of.

 

[FuzzyZergling]

He gets a good look at me face, and pauses.

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my face

 

[Coltsguy]

As long as the Silver Crystal is undamaged and Sailor Moon is alive, then this is still fixable thanks to deus ex machina rules.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

The Sailor Scouts are a lot older then their biological age would suggest because of reincarnation.

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Considering that most of them don't remember their past lives, I don't think that really counts.

 

[Zig]

Why would Pluto have a contingency? She's not a seer nor is she manipulating events to reach a desired outcome. That's all fanon. Her job is to guard the Door of Space and Time(which is a means of time travel only) and protect the Silver Millennium from extra-dimensional threats and from those who would reach it across time.

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Such as the SI that ended up there?

 

[PDV]

Communism with serpentine characteristics

 

[Mr Zoat]

my face

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Vaermina]

As long as the Silver Crystal is undamaged and Sailor Moon is alive, then this is still fixable thanks to deus ex machina rules.

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Sailor Moon was barely able to survive doing what she did in canon, if she tries to reverse things after this long she would realistically go the way of Queen Serenity.

And that would mean Pharaoh 90 or Galaxia destroy Earth.

 

[King of Frost]

Yeah it is legitimately hard to imagine how they're getting out of this situation in a way that isn't futile thanks to what happens later, unless Usagi is actually still alive somehow or can be revived.

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

Well, there's the Out Of Context options

Spoiler: Just a Few Options

Say....Tossing the offending Queen into the Bleed to be devoured by the Chaos between Realities...given we got that checkov's gun with their passage to this universe.
Then there's the Not Local magic using Elf that might have a short circuit for things....if the Sailor Scouts are Dead, well...that's just very late first aid to a Necromancer.
I'm rather hoping some Other Paul comes wandering by for unrelated reasons and goes 'not this again'. The Yellow Protector one was messing with an alternative earth when he wasn't having adventures with the thundercats, and there is of course Blue Power Ring wandering about.
And of course Maz and Angelica are powers in their own right, and are SOMEWHERE here abouts. And they are not the types to be Damsels in Distress.

 

[BR549]

Ah, the blonde bastard. Seriously, unless he was a mean one before the change, the darkness really made him nasty.

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IIRC, the Four Heavenly Kings were at least heavily implied, if not outright stated, to have been Prince Endymion's best buds squad in the Previous, Far Past Before Time.

So yeah, presumably Zoisite got the short end of the corruption stick even compared to his peers.

 

[Coltsguy]

Sailor Moon was barely able to survive doing what she did in canon, if she tries to reverse things after this long she would realistically go the way of Queen Serenity.

And that would mean Pharaoh 90 or Galaxia destroy Earth.

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If it gets done in the same manner, yeah, but that's why we've got Paul here.

 

[Nervaqus987]

Come to think of it, didn't the main heroine of Cardcaptor Sakura also initially have a crush on a boy who was way too old for her too? Is this a common occurence for Magical Girls?

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Oh, the fucking charts you need for Cardcaptor Sakura.

So let's start with Sakura.

She, age ten btw, had a crush on her brother's boyfriend Yukito.

Incidentally, Sakura's eventual love interest, Li Syaoran also had a crush on Yukito.

Meanwhile, Sakura's best friend Tomoyo has a crush on her.

As the cast expands, you get more and more unrequited love and ties of affection and attraction. Like, for example, Tomoyo's mother was in love with Sakura's mother and in turn hates her father as the man who "stole" her away.

 

[Vaermina]

If it gets done in the same manner, yeah, but that's why we've got Paul here.

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There's nothing Orange Lantern should be able to do unless Zoat rewrites how several things work.

The Silver Crystal is an Infinity Gem level artifact, its so far above anything he's ever dealt with he shouldn't even have any inkling of where to start.

 

[Cuchulin]

Negima is actually peak, the problem is that the anime is a shit adaptation that only focused on the first volume of the manga and played the pervert angle way too hard in order to sell figurines.

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Eh, the second Anime is a good and very funny Anime, it's just a crap adaptation.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

There's nothing Orange Lantern should be able to do unless Zoat rewrites how several things work.

The Silver Crystal is an Infinity Gem level artifact, its so far above anything he's ever dealt with he shouldn't even have any inkling of where to start.

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Paul has dealt with beings of equivalent power in the past, so it's not really that new for him.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th November 1995
19:28 GMT -9

Kunzite sits across from me, staring into space. Zoisite is pacing, hugging himself as he shivers in abject horror.

"So if I understand you correctly, Beryl was just… Some criminal magician with no particular status. She went crazy, made a deal with Metalia, got supercharged and tried using the enthralled population of Earth to conquer the entire human inhabited star system. It sort of worked, loads of people died including her and all of you… And then Beryl got reincarnated, went to the North Pole, found her old workshop and regained all her old memories."

He nods weakly.

Sailor V is looking at her sword. "I killed her?"

"Your-." He breaths in slowly, and then out again. "The original you, yes."

"Huh." She frowns. "I always assumed it was the Moon Princess."

"No, she just… Killed herself after Endymion died. I-. He was my friend-."

I stand up, walk forwards and put my right hand on his left shoulder. "Mind control makes us do some pretty messed up things."

"I wasn't controlled. I was always me. It just-."

"It just made senses at the time." I turn and raise my eyebrows in the direction of Zoisite. He stops pacing for just long enough to nod tersely. "You still think like yourself, talk like yourself, act like yourself, but when certain things come up… Something just makes sense that wouldn't have before, like you just learned how to do a new type of maths problem."

Zoisite stares at me. "You've experienced it yourself?"

"A couple of times. A demon managed to channel demonic magic into me without me noticing, and I gradually… Changed. It made me a good deal more ruthless and… Less empathic. My girlfriend shot me with a bullet impregnated with divine magic before I did anything too bad, but it could have been very nasty."

Sailor V frowns. "Do you two have families?" They both nod. "Parents, brothers, sisters… Children?"

Kunzite shakes his head. "Not… Children, no. Both of my parents in this life… Were alive. My brothers, too. They're probably youma now."

Zoisite shudders. "I'm Japanese. My parents and sister should still be alright. I should-. I should telephone them. I haven't.. spoken to them since this all started. Since Qu-. Since Beryl gave me my memories back."

"Sailor V? How about you?"

She shakes her head. "This is all news to me. Does Beryl have a family?"

Kunzite shrugs. "If she does then I doubt that she remembers them. She had the most contact with Metalia."

"That's not going to happen to me is it? I'm not just going to forget my family one day, right?"

Kunzite looks at her blankly. "I don't know. I don't even know how you got Sailor Guardian Venus's power."

"Artemis, my pet cat. He turned up one day and started talking…"

Kunzite frowns. "Artemis got reincarnated too?"

"He did." She shudders. "But I'm.. pretty sure he died when Queen Metalia destroyed Juban."

"Gentlemen." The three of them look at me. "Did you happen to discover a.. female youma in a half-mask earlier today? Not on your records, just appeared out of nowhere?"

Zoisite nods. "Yes. And we informed Queen… Whichever of them is in control of their body, and she sent… The other you to pick her up."

I generate a construct image of Mazikeen and he nods. "And she just let you?"

"She was barely conscious. She didn't resist."

"Okay. So we'll be trying to rescue her, Lushun, any surviving Guardians, Endymion… Anyone else?"

"Jadeite…" Kunzite looks at Zoisite, who nods. "Might still be alive. There were four of us. Nephrite is dead, but Beryl just cursed Jadeite to eternal sleep. If she's hard pressed then she might wake him up, or she might just ignore him. Do you have a plan to make sure that the people transformed by the dark energy survive?"

"No. Conditions permitting I'll ask Mazikeen if she can think of anything, but if I have to kill everyone who's been transformed to save those who haven't then that's what I'll do."

Sailor V gives me a shocked look. "But there must be a way to save then. Lushun's pillar.. thing, you thought that would work!"

"It didn't work, it just save the other me a power boost. Look, Metalia's the source of the dark energy, right? And we're going to have to kill her. If we delay, the dark energy spreads more and things get worse. Eventually, the whole world will be covered and it'll just be a handful of us left with a few sentient youma. So we have to kill her, and my theory is that the moment we do that, the dark energy will begin to dissipate. If Lushun or Mazikeen or anyone else can come up with a solution in… However long we have after that? Great. But I don't think we can afford to delay."

I look to the two Heavenly Kings.

"Can we?"

They look at each other for a moment, then turn back to us and shake their heads sadly. I look at Sailor V and make a gesture of appeal.

"If you've got a better option, I'm all ears. I don't want to kill billions of innocent people. I just prefer that to killing all of the innocent people. I mean-. Does Metalia have a way to get to another star system?"

Kunzite shakes his head. "No. Not that I know of."

"Then I can just take you all to another star system and you can wait it out. I want to be clear that that's an option. If saving everyone is just a matter of time that we can get time."

Sailor V straightens up slightly. "Can you evacuate everyone left on Earth?"

"In theory, yes. In practice, I don't have anywhere to take them yet. My star charts aren't accurate for this reality. I'd have to fly around until I found somewhere habitable, then set up the infrastructure for billions of people, and then actually transport them. I could do it, but it would take… Months of continual work. Doing it for a handful of superhumans is a good deal easier, and that's… Basically what we did when something like this happened to my world."

She looks curious. "Did you save everyone on your world?"

"Most of them, but that required tools that I just don't have here. And I can't get them. Unless you know of a incredibly powerful focus of pure life energy, then we're out of-"

Her eyes widen. "The Silver Crystal!"

"-luck-. What?"

"It's a magic crystal from the Moon Kingdom! Sailor Moon managed to reassemble it just before… The other you turned up. Artemis told me that it's really powerful."

I look at the Heavenly Kings. "Have you heard of it?"

Zoisite nods. "It was the most powerful source of magic in the Moon Kingdom. I don't know exactly what its limits are, but it's certainly possible."

"Okay, add that to the list. Anything else?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Oh, the fucking charts you need for Cardcaptor Sakura.

So let's start with Sakura.

She, age ten btw, had a crush on her brother's boyfriend Yukito.

Incidentally, Sakura's eventual love interest, Li Syaoran also had a crush on Yukito.

Meanwhile, Sakura's best friend Tomoyo has a crush on her.

As the cast expands, you get more and more unrequited love and ties of affection and attraction. Like, for example, Tomoyo's mother was in love with Sakura's mother and in turn hates her father as the man who "stole" her away.

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As far as I remember the anime, they took about half of those out and it still a bit odd.

 

[Darko]

just save the other me a power boost.

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"just gave"

 

[Ngamer11]

"It just made senses at the time." I turn and raise my eyebrows in the direction of Zoisite. He stops pacing for just long enough to nod tersely. "You still think like yourself, talk like yourself, act like yourself, but when certain things come up… Something just makes sense that wouldn't have before, like you just learned how to do a new type of maths problem."

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I think those should say 'sense' and 'math'.

 

[King of Frost]

I'm a bit surprised they actually did just let OL purify them. If I were designing an "almost can't tell" mind control system not letting anyone tamper with what's keeping them altered would be priority number one or two.

 

[BR549]

I'm a bit surprised they actually did just let OL purify them. If I were designing an "almost can't tell" mind control system not letting anyone tamper with what's keeping them altered would be priority number one or two.

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Neither Beryl or Metallia has ever heard of the Evil Overlord List, and Metallia at least would laugh at it if she had.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

18th November 1995
19:28 GMT -9

Kunzite sits across from me, staring into space. Zoisite is pacing, hugging himself as he shivers in abject horror.

"So if I understand you correctly, Beryl was just… Some criminal magician with no particular status. She went crazy, made a deal with Metalia, got supercharged and tried using the enthralled population of Earth to conquer the entire human inhabited star system. It sort of worked, loads of people died including her and all of you… And then Beryl got reincarnated, went to the North Pole, found her old workshop and regained all her old memories."

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That's something the 90's anime glossed over for simplicity. In the manga, Beryl and the Four Kings all reincarnated, just like everyone else. My personal headcanon is that they became archaeology students studying ancient cultural traces, hence their discovery of Metalia's burial site...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

He nods weakly.

Sailor V is looking at her sword. "I killed her?"

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Indeed. Ran her through with a sword not adapted into the 90's anime. It's probably still in the Moon Kingdom's ruins, waiting to be collected...

"Your-." He breaths in slowly, and then out again. "The original you, yes."

"Huh." She frowns. "I always assumed it was the Moon Princess."

"No, she just… Killed herself after Endymion died. I-. He was my friend-."

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Also something toned down for the 90's anime. Probably a bit much for a girl's show.

I stand up, walk forwards and put my right hand on his left shoulder. "Mind control makes us do some pretty messed up things."

"I wasn't controlled. I was always me. It just-."

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The worst kind of mind control, the most insidious, because it feels so natural.

"It just made sense at the time." I turn and raise my eyebrows in the direction of Zoisite. He stops pacing for just long enough to nod tersely. "You still think like yourself, talk like yourself, act like yourself, but when certain things come up… Something just makes sense that wouldn't have before, like you just learned how to do a new type of maths problem."

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And given that Zoi probably remembers everything he did under the influence, he's gonna remember a lot of nasty things.

Zoisite stares at me. "You've experienced it yourself?"

"A couple of times. A demon managed to channel demonic magic into me without me noticing, and I gradually… Changed. It made me a good deal more ruthless and… Less empathic. My girlfriend shot me with a bullet impregnated with divine magic before I did anything too bad, but it could have been very nasty."

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Sadly, no Kahuuite bullets here to cure people that way... Assuming it would even work.

Sailor V frowns. "Do you two have families?" They both nod. "Parents, brothers, sisters… Children?"

Kunzite shakes his head. "Not… Children, no. Both of my parents in this life… Were alive. My brothers, too. They're probably youma now."

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It makes sense, though I don't think the manga ever explored that.

Zoisite shudders. "I'm Japanese. My parents and sister should still be alright. I should-. I should telephone them. I haven't.. spoken to them since this all started. Since Qu-. Since Beryl gave me my memories back."

"Sailor V? How about you?"

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That'll be a heck of a reunion, given he's probably been missing for several years by now.

She shakes her head. "This is all news to me. Does Beryl have a family?"

Kunzite shrugs. "If she does then I doubt that she remembers them. She had the most contact with Metalia."

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At this point, she's probably little more than a finger-puppet for Metalia. A Human body for the dark spirit to walk around in...

"That's not going to happen to me is it? I'm not just going to forget my family one day, right?"

Kunzite looks at her blankly. "I don't know. I don't even know how you got Sailor Guardian Venus's power."

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Flat out reincarnation magic, via the late Queen Serenity the First. Along with her daughter, Endymion, the Senshi and everybody else in the Moon Kingdom...

"Artemis, my pet cat. He turned up one day and started talking…"

Kunzite frowns. "Artemis got reincarnated too?"

"He did." She shudders. "But I'm.. pretty sure he died when Queen Metalia destroyed Juban."

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The 90's anime made it that they were in 'suspended animation' until the right time. With a little bit of amnesia, if Luna not realising Usagi looked a lot like Princess Serenity is anything to go by.

"Gentlemen." The three of them look at me. "Did you happen to discover a.. female youma in a half-mask earlier today? Not on your records, just appeared out of nowhere?"

Zoisite nods. "Yes. And we informed Queen… Whichever of them is in control of their body, and she sent… The other you to pick her up."

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And there's Mazikeen! Looks like Lushun did lead them to where she ended up.

I generate a construct image of Mazikeen and he nods. "And she just let you?"

"She was barely conscious. She didn't resist."

"Okay. So we'll be trying to rescue her, Lushun, any surviving Guardians, Endymion… Anyone else?"

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Well, then, another captive to rescue. Her weakened state must have been due to the 'teleportation' spell or however it worked...

"Jadeite…" Kunzite looks at Zoisite, who nods. "Might still be alive. There were four of us. Nephrite is dead, but Beryl just cursed Jadeite to eternal sleep. If she's hard pressed then she might wake him up, or she might just ignore him. Do you have a plan to make sure that the people transformed by the dark energy survive?"

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Definitely the anime fate for him. In the Manga, he was burned to death by Sailor Mars. The manga senshi didn't screw around...

"No. Conditions permitting I'll ask Mazikeen if she can think of anything, but if I have to kill everyone who's been transformed to save those who haven't then that's what I'll do."

Sailor V gives me a shocked look. "But there must be a way to save then. Lushun's pillar.. thing, you thought that would work!"

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Well, there is one thing, but it's extremely dangerous to use it alone.

"It didn't work, it just gave the other me a power boost. Look, Metalia's the source of the dark energy, right? And we're going to have to kill her. If we delay, the dark energy spreads more and things get worse. Eventually, the whole world will be covered and it'll just be a handful of us left with a few sentient youma. So we have to kill her, and my theory is that the moment we do that, the dark energy will begin to dissipate. If Lushun or Mazikeen or anyone else can come up with a solution in… However long we have after that? Great. But I don't think we can afford to delay."

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And if my suspicions about Sailor Moon are right, saving her will give them just what they need to undo the damage...

I look to the two Heavenly Kings.

"Can we?"

They look at each other for a moment, then turn back to us and shake their heads sadly. I look at Sailor V and make a gesture of appeal.

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Well, humanity hasn't been totally converted yet. It'd be a disaster on par with a Sheeda Harrowing, but they'd live on.

"If you've got a better option, I'm all ears. I don't want to kill billions of innocent people. I just prefer that to killing all of the innocent people. I mean-. Does Metalia have a way to get to another star system?"

Kunzite shakes his head. "No. Not that I know of."

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Fortunate for the rest of the universe, at least.

"Then I can just take you all to another star system and you can wait it out. I want to be clear that that's an option. If saving everyone is just a matter of time that we can get time."

Sailor V straightens up slightly. "Can you evacuate everyone left on Earth?"

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Not all at once, no. Even if he can use Zeta Beams here to transport people en masse, it would take weeks to get it all set up. At the least.

"In theory, yes. In practice, I don't have anywhere to take them yet. My star charts aren't accurate for this reality. I'd have to fly around until I found somewhere habitable, then set up the infrastructure for billions of people, and then actually transport them. I could do it, but it would take… Months of continual work. Doing it for a handful of superhumans is a good deal easier, and that's… Basically what we did when something like this happened to my world."

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And he'd be doing that on limited charge, with dubious ways to recharge.

She looks curious. "Did you save everyone on your world?"

"Most of them, but that required tools that I just don't have here. And I can't get them. Unless you know of a incredibly powerful focus of pure life energy, then we're out of-"

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Yeah, about that...

Her eyes widen. "The Silver Crystal!"

"-luck-. What?"

"It's a magic crystal from the Moon Kingdom! Sailor Moon managed to reassemble it just before… The other you turned up. Artemis told me that it's really powerful."

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That throws the time frame a little out of whack, unless she means the local Paul left her in England, only to turn up weeks later in youmafied form...

I look at the Heavenly Kings. "Have you heard of it?"

Zoisite nods. "It was the most powerful source of magic in the Moon Kingdom. I don't know exactly what its limits are, but it's certainly possible."

"Okay, add that to the list. Anything else?"

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Yeah, there's a reason Metalia wanted it so bad.

So, the mission becomes clear: Hit Metalia's base, free its captives, end it (and probably Beryl in the process) and hopefully recover the Silver Crystal and use it to fix everything. No easy task. I fully expect there to be literal armies of youma guarding it, whatever powerful servants Metalia has left on site and Beryl as the final boss... Joy.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

Um, Paul? Just to be on the safe side, when you find Mazikeen, make sure that you emphasize to your allies that she's not completely evil and on your side. I'm saying this, because unlike in the DC universe, all demons are evil, and I could be wrong, but I don't think the Sailor Scouts have ever had to deal with a non-evil demon/youma before, haven't they?

 

[PJ739]

Can someone tell me the MC oath?