It was a month filled with tragedy and sorrow for all sides. Repeated attacks by the Arcana and the youma they commanded left landmarks that had stood for centuries shattered, thousands of innocent lives lost, and much of the city of Crystal Tokyo in ruins. For centuries the citizens had taken the protection of their guardians, the Sol Senshi, for granted, yet even they seemed weak and ineffectual against the new threat. That fact was underscored on the day infamously known as Bloody Sunday, in which the Crystal Palace once considered untouchable was breached and lives considered eternal lost. The Sol Senshi lost their beloved Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion, leaving the precocious Small Lady Serenity as Queen Regnant. The Twelve soldiers known as the Zodiacs by the earthlings lost the lives they had once knew and they became swallowed up by a world in which they were not ready for. In the end, the Argenian people who had suffered so much, failed in their bid to secure the silver crystal of their homeland. They were left utterly defeated, homeless and powerless.
It has been a year since the Curse of the Moon befell.
Life was restored to the Argenians, their cursed shards melted into nothingness and reabsorbed back into the cosmos. They lost the powers granted to them by the shards and thus, became what they had been before their apocalypse. Still, they had no planet to return home to, and their surviving population was far too small to rebuild. An Argenian embassy was established in Crystal Tokyo— the only land to be gifted to the Nation of Argenia— and the survivors were granted diplomatic immunity for their actions in light of everything that had happened. Their crimes were erased; the loss of one’s home was considered enough punishment. The government, with hesitation, has granted them incentives to find and pursue jobs, to gain training, and to establish life here on Earth. Her Majesty, Queen Ava Katsuragi of the Argenians was granted full tutelage and honor of her rank and station, presiding as Queen over a nation of people without a country.
Understandably, the decision to grant the surviving Argenians amnesty seemed like a slap in the face to many of Crystal Tokyo's citizens. These were the same people who murdered their king and queen, destroyed much of the city, and even aspired to wipe out the entire population of Earth! Discrimination and violence against known Argenians is not uncommon, and there have been many appeals to the young queen to exile— or even execute— the survivors rather than grant them housing and jobs that could have gone to better use for human citizens instead. The queen's soft treatment of the Argenians is one of the major reasons behind the recent unrest amongst the citizens, and calls for their young queen to step down. There are some who would call for the entire government, as it stands, to be dismantled and started anew in a different form.
The new Queen is still a child in the eyes of many, despite that she has lived over 900 years, according to some reports. Her government ministers have taken care of most of the tasks that have befallen her. While only Crystal Tokyo is directly under the rule of the Sovereign, the rest of the world still relies on the leadership of Crystal Tokyo to help keep the relative peace they have enjoyed for centuries. Throughout all of King Endymion and Neo Queen Serenity’s reign, there have been dissenters but many speculate that those who disagree with the rulings of the White Moon Family may take advantage of the young Queen’s new rule to strike.
The twelve guardians of Sailor Ophiuchus faced a challenge as well. Shards of the Silver Crystal had been forcibly fused to their star seeds well before any of them were born. They were forced to accept the harsh reality that their lives as Senshi were nothing but falsehoods generated by the fractured power of the Silver Crystal and the desperate prayers of the one woman who still held a tiny, seemingly insignificant connection to it. When the shards of crystal implanted into the Arcana dissolved into the aether, so did their own. Such a fusion could not be undone so easily, and a gap was left in the starseeds of these young women. Their powers as Senshi were lost. Only Ophiuchus retained her serpentine powers, having been born with the true Sailor Crystal of her homeworld. Her guardians dispersed to resume the lives they had led before— to try and regain some normalcy despite the fact nearly everyone knew their names and roles in the Curse of the Moon tragedies.
Neo Queen Serenity remained dead, even throughout the final battle when some had hoped she might reappear as she had so many times before. Yet, with each passing day, the crystal’s light grew dimmer until one day a shared vision appeared to each of the elder Sol. Their Queen, healthy and radiant with her silver hair, visited her guardians and thanked them for their selfless service to her. She had decided long ago, as much as she loved this life and loved her daughter, she would no longer fight against time. She would accept her own death and move on to await her friends in the next life. Their lives and the ability to finally live as normal women, free of their duties as Senshi, were her last gift to them.
Their own senshi powers, separate from who they were, incarnations of the old princesses, went dormant. Much akin to how Sailor Saturn, the senshi of destruction had slept before the end of Silver Millennium, so would the others, while their human bodies, minds and souls lived on as Princesses.
With the power of the Silver Crystal, mother to them all, dimming, so did their own sailor crystals. As time passed, they found their senshi abilities weakened as the Senshi inside of them returned to sleep. Soon they were gone altogether, and for the first time in centuries, they felt the weight of time upon them. They were finally free to grow old together as ordinary women— to live out their dreams and hopefully to be happy— a chance the queen herself never really had.
Sadly, the noble and proud Sailor Pluto, who had existed since the dawn of time, was not able.. nor allowed to share in such a gift. She had never known a life without her Sailor Powers. Setsuna had been born at the creation of time and would only die when Time ceased. Her senshi powers had never experienced dormancy and never would. Unlike the others who would come and go, and especially Saturn who was only called upon when needed, Pluto would always remain the sad and lonely Guardian of Time.
In their place, a new generation stands to take up the protection of the world. Princess Lady Serenity was formally coronated as Her Serene Majesty, Queen Serenity of Crystal Tokyo, Silver Millennium and the Golden Kingdom of Earth within the year. Her guardians, the Sailor Quartet of Vesta, Pallas, Juno, and Ceres remains at her side. Joining them are Helios, Once her father's guardian priest; The four Heavenly Kings who have sworn allegiance to their King's only daughter and now serve among her advisers; Apollo, an Elysian cat gifted with the power of speech and human form, and of course, the Solar Princesses who find themselves in their own world, reborn for the final time.
Plot by NQS and Jo
