DARK FACETS

                      An Alternate Sailor Moon Story

                          by Jeffrey Paul Hosmer

                                   *****

PROLOGUE:

     Consider a gemstone.  Carved by the hands of a master craftsman, its
facets will splinter and reflect the light.  As you turn the gem, some
facets will catch your eye while others appear dark.

     Now, consider the Empyrean Silver Crystal or Ginzuiishou.  It does not
reflect the light, but glows with its own silver light.  Its facets were
never touched by any mortal craftsman.  Each seems made up of innumerable
smaller facets which are, in turn, made up of still smaller ones.  Close
examination, however, will still reveal darkened facets, as if their light
does not reach your eyes.  That is not the case.

     For the Silver Crystal encompasses more worlds than just this one.
Each facet on its surface is a representation of a facet of its existence.
Not all these worlds are pleasant.  Not all of them are bright.  In some,
the forces of darkness have triumphed.

     And in some, the roles of Good and Evil are changed dramatically.

                                   *****

     Haruna Sakurade walked briskly on her way to Juban Junior High.  It
was the start of a new school year and she was determined to start this one
on the right foot.

     It's all in your attitude, she thought to herself.  If you go in there
expecting trouble, you will find it.  Besides, the little scamps can sense
your fear.

     She shook her head, trying to drive away her unprofessional thoughts.
She was too young for such things.  She raised one hand and ran it through
her red mane of hair.  I'm not even thirty yet.  I shouldn't be so cynical.
Most children are not horrible little monsters.

     She turned a corner, her faith in mankind reaffirmed and determined to
make a difference in the lives of her charges, and promptly had a cat jump
off a wall and into her face.

     She shrieked and tried to pull the cat away.  "Get off me!  Get off
me!" she yelled.  The cat, however, came away limply in her arms.
Examining it, Sakurade saw the cat was a female with dark blue-black fur
and a funny bald spot on its forehead in the shape of a crescent.  Her fur
was singed in a number of spots and her body was chilled.  She was also
bleeding from a number of small wounds.

     "Goodness, what happened to you, kitty?" Sakurade said.  She looked
around to see if she could spot anyone who might have tormented the poor
cat, but there was no one to be seen.

     "Probably some rotten kids did this--"

     "H-help me..." the cat moaned.

     Sakurade blinked.

                                   *****

     From the top of a nearby building, four shadowy figures watched the
shocked teacher.

     "There's just one Earther.  We can take her out easily," said one.

     "No," said a second.  "The Queen told us to avoid all contact with the
Earthers."

     "But we almost had the damn cat!" complained the third.

     "The Earther in not important," he fourth said in a cold voice.  "She
cannot be with the cat all the time.  We will watch for an opportunity...
and then Luna will be ours."

                                   *****

     Sakurade ran to the school, clutching the cat in her arms.  What was
she supposed to do with a talking cat?  She couldn't tell anyone, that was
certain.  They would think she was crazy.  She wasn't sure that she'd
disagree with them.

     She hid the cat in her her blazer as much as she could upon reaching
Juban Middle School and made her way to a janitor's closet.  She had maybe
ten minutes before classes began, but she thought she could do this if she
moved quickly.  The closet was near the infirmary and held some excess
medical supplies, mainly bandages and gauze tape (which the school used in
copious amounts.)  Sakurade made use of some from an already open box and
bandaged the worst of the cats wounds.

     "I don't even know why I'm doing this," she said to the cat.  "You're
going to have a lot of explaining to do."

     Great, now she was talking to the cat!  Now, to find someplace to hide
her...

     "Don't go."

     Sakurade turned to the cat in shock.  It had spoken again.

     "If you go," the cat continued, with the voice of a young girl,
"they'll find me again.  I can only mask my aura through close proximity to
a human."

     "Who will find you?  And how can you talk?"

     The cat looked irritated by the questions.  "That's not important
right now--"

     "The hell it isn't!  Now, you explain to me WHAT you are or I'm out
that door."

     The cat sighed.  "My name is Luna.  I am a guardian of the Silver
Empyrean Crystal, which our enemy seeks.  Her warriors already found me
once and tried to torture me for that information.  They cannot ever
discover the whereabouts of the Crystal, or this world will die."

     "What do you mean, 'our' enemy?"

     "Since you know my secret, I have chosen you to be my guardian and
aide in my search for the Prince of Earth and his four Guardians."

                                   *****

     In a shadowy throne room, located both very far away from and yet very
near the earth, a Queen sits, brooding.  Not even the arrival of her four
warriors lift her mood.

     "Report," she said, not looking up.

     One of her warriors stepped forward.  She had short blue hair and wore
a uniform that resembled a sailor fuku.  It was white with a blue skirt and
a large blue bow covered her chest.

     "My Queen," she said, "we found the traitor Luna, but she escaped us
into the hands of an Earther before we could wrest the location of the
Crystal from her."

     Another warrior stepped forward, with long brown hair tied in a pony-
tail and wearing a similar uniform, except that hers was green where the
other's was blue.  A large pink bow accented her costume.  "We should not
worry about the Earthers, my Queen.  They lack even the simplest spells.
Our magic would defeat them easily."

     A third warrior stepped forward, dressed in an orange and white
uniform.  "Yeah, let's just smash them into rubble, as we did so long
ago... just leave a few cute guys for me!"

     The fourth warrior did not speak, but merely watched her Queen
expectantly.

     The Queen looked at her warriors, then shook her head.  "No.  The
order not to harm the Earthers remains.  Mercury," she addressed the first
warrior, "you will devise a plan to separate Luna from her Earther."

     "Yes, my Queen," Senshi Mercury said.

     "Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, you are dismissed.  Mars," the Queen said to
the silent warrior, "remain, please."

     "Yes, my Queen," they all chorused.

     The first three left, not without a few glares being thrown at the
fourth warrior, Senshi Mars.  Mars was a beautiful woman with long, black
hair and a red and white fuku.  She approached her Queen and knelt before
her.

     "How may I serve you, my Queen?" she asked.

     "You may tell me how we have come to this point, so far from where we
began.You can tell me that what I do is right.  You'd be lying, but neither
of us has a choice about that, do we?"

     Mars was unsettled by her