sailoreuterpe – SittingOverHereDreaming

so the PROBLEM is no one stops fighting

well, Ami stops fighting outright, but she runs intel and assists behind the scenes so she’s still in it
Rei, Mako, and Mina, though? losing POWERS isn’t gonna keep them from brawling to protect their princess
Mako fares pretty well, she’s been a fighter all her life, her powers mostly supplemented her fighting style
Rei and Mina take up weapons. Rei is an archer (and still a psychic, that part of her was never Mars) and Mina has the Moon Sword (it’s not in the anime but SHE DESERVES IT). Mina might handle it more like a rapier than a broadsword, but she makes it work.
They’re all good at what they do, but it’s hard, they get injured more, and they KNOW that eventually, they’re going to die and stay down
Ami pours over medical texts years before medical school, she learns triage and crisis medicine as best as any young teenager can
Mako becomes a regular at the emergency room, but no one is surprised. She has the look of a troublemaker. Ami first quietly pays the bills, her mother won’t miss the money, but as time goes on she learns to hack the system and make the bills disappear
Getting Rei and Mina to go in when they need it is harder. Mina ends up with broken bones that didn’t set to heal right; Ami has to steal antibiotics from her mother’s hospital more than once when Rei refuses to get infected wounds checked out
They get through the fight with the Black Moon Clan, but barely.
There’s a sense of relief when Uranus and Neptune show up, assholes that they are
Then their Talismans are shot out and everything goes back to shit
Haruka still has her sword, and she’s pulled to fight. Michiru would rather leave things be, but she can’t abandon Haruka.
Michiru can scry with her mirror, for all that’s worth (certain magic resides in the Talismans themselves, not the senshi)
She learns to fight dirty, not being naturally scrappy or strong. She uses her money to her advantages– knives hidden in her clothes, Kevlar vests for herself and the team, poison for if she can get close to an enemy
She teams up with Ami, as little as they get along, to ensure that she gets close to big bads and mini bosses. she tracks them down and faces them as an “ordinary girl”
Most of the Witches 5 mysteriously die without a fight. Only Michiru and Ami (and later Rei and Mina, because they are observant) know how it happened
Mistress 9 and Pharoh 90 nearly end them all, but the fight was always between Usagi, Hotaru, and the villains. There’s no force field to protect the rest of the city, the inners have to try and save citizens with hand-to hand combat. They fail more than they succeed.
Hotaru comes back a baby, no hint of Saturn in her. She is labeled an orphan of the city tragedy, and adopted into a loving home
Chibusa awakens, the gift of Hotaru’s mercy, unable to become ChibiMoon. When Pegasus comes to her, she’s even more desprate to feel special, to feel like there’s something she can do
The Dead Moon Circus is less devastating than other enemies. Nehelania wants Helios and the Golden Crystal, she cares less for the SIlver Crystal and so attacks outright less
The Trio fall easily, without redemption. Rei is tired, she relies on shoot first ask questions later to keep them all going.
The Quartet provides the real challenge; the Inners are mostly saved by the fact that the Quartet like to play with their prey, and they’re drawn to Chibiusa
Unable to become a senshi, Chibs only offense is her Princess form (which cannot be taken away, the crystal is not an inherent power but a birthright). This awakens the Quartet’s loyalty as future senchi, and they defect.
The first defeat of Nehelania goes much the same as it did originally, but the second is when senshi begin to fall. Some, she still traps. Others, she kill outright. Mako cannot withstand Nehelania’s attacks without her senshi powers, Minako cannot survive her fall (Pluto is exempt from the rules of reincarnation, as she is a being of a different sort)
Galaxia’s team lays waste to the rest, one by one, despite the help the starlights give
Haruka is first to fall, being the last of the charge-in-and-fight senshi. Michiru goes soon after, unable to care enough to keep up her old stealth strategies.
The Starlights and Rei take out the Minibosses, even Usagi can’t fight for redemption/purification now. Her grief and exhaustion are overwhelming.
Ami takes the hit for Usagi in the fight against Galaxia. Her starseed is no longer worth anything to the golden queen.
When ChibiChibi reveals herself, Usagii takes the sword. She has Rei left, Rei and the Starlights, and she will not lose them for anything.
There is no reincarnation after that. The Starlights do not regain their planet. The galaxy remains devastated, but the earth is saved.
These five people who fought learn to live on with their grief, to rebuild what they can
Chibiusa is born in the future, still a princess, still much the same. The differences are small but jarring. She was always wholly Usagi’s child biologically, Usagi’s and the crystal’s, but she’s raised by different people now.
It’s not a happy ending, but they all find reasons to smile anyway

Tag: sailoreuterpe

AU where Senshi can be resurrected BUT lose all of their powers at resurrection. So, Season Two, all we have is Usagi (or did she die, too) and the Outers, then just Usagi. If they live that long.