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It was rippling through the senshi grapevine; a strange man named Kurma had introduced himself to a group of them, and now that group was showing the rest the way to their stars. Some of them had so very far to go and some were closer, but none of them came from a place as close as the candy-haired young lady carefully picking her way over a fallen marble pillar away from the palace of the Silver Millennium. Really, she'd been born from Earth and Earth was half of her heritage, so to say she didn't have far to go was even more of an understatement than anyone could think!

It was still odd to be here, with everything that had happened. In the future, the Moon had been left quite alone as a quiet monument to what happened when things went horribly wrong. Neo Queen Serenity had been born on Earth, and ruled the system from the planet of the Prince she'd married. Small Lady, consequently, had never seen the Ruins of the Silver Millennium. But she'd studied them, desiring to know all she could about this mysterious time that had jump started so much strife for her parents in the 20th century.

It was from these studies that she knew to head for the center of the fountains, where the monolith had stood. The great crystal pillar that had symbolized their power, their hope, their dream of a unified Solar System. It had been the first thing destroyed when Beryl had invaded. It would now never stand again, laying alone in the silent atmosphere of the Moon. So it was with a little bit of surprise that the heir to the Moon Kingdom paused, before her lips curved ever so slightly. "Kurma. I should have felt you here." White-gloved fingers trailed along marble as she picked her way closer in pink heels, stopping just out of arm's reach. "I am not grounded still, I checked."

It was a strange dissonance between Perry Westerman and Kurma was more than a trifle unsettling for the tiny Moon Princess, and for a good long minute she started at him in consternation. He was almost as bad as Ray sometimes when it came to the language he spoke, and Chibimoon was so very tempted to start simply yelling at him in Japanese until he got the idea that she was not pleased with all these twisting meanings. Except he was her guardian, he was much more powerful than she was, and the poor girl loved him dearly.

If Perry was the father-figure, Kurma was the eccentric uncle! There were several cases of this in her books, and in response a pink heel stomped on the moon and raised a cloud of grey dust in the ruins. There was a light bounce, pigtails falling much slower than the rest of her in the odd gravity. "I did not mean like this. I meant like no going out. Remember? Though this is my planet, so maybe I am in charge?" Her smile was very wide now, bouncing one more time for fun. After all, she couldn't be all business! Landing, red eyes looked around and she sighed.

"It is not much of a planet though, is it?"

It was very tempting to bend down and try to scoop up some of the moon's dusty surface to throw at Kurma. It seemed a whole lot like Earth's snow, though without a lot of the cold and wet. Certainly some of the magic making the place livable had faded over the centuries and gravity was almost exactly how it had been for the astronauts' visits.

Thinking about the importance of minor rocks orbiting small planets, Chibimoon smiled somewhat saucily. "I was told a long time ago, that there are times when the very best things come in the very little bodies." The best things come in small packages didn't quite translate properly for the barely bilingual teen, but the idea hopefully came across. Looking around, curiosity was growing and growing, though the idea of walking away from Kurma was tinged with unhappiness.

Obviously, there was only one option.

"Would you like a tour? You did not seem like you have been here, and I have not either. We can explore." Explore, perhaps find something worthwhile, a clue to what had happened here. Maybe even her grandmother might show! Excitement was rising now too, beaming out of her eyes like lasers. "Please?"

"This whole place is not a thing but history." Nothing was another one of those words that the princess was having quite a bit of trouble with, but it seemed that Kurma's speaking about the place like he'd be curious to see more of it as well was his assent to let her play explorer with him. Almost unconsciously something from her days with Ray Gordon tinged the edge of Chibimoon's mind, and her tiny soprano voice started humming in the dead air the Indiana Jones theme song. It was unlikely that there were any cursed booby traps here in the Ruins of the Silver Millennium and even more so that the girl with the Moon's blood would have tripped them.

But Kurma was here and he might. Wouldn't that be exciting?

"A very long time ago, Queen Beryl took power on Earth and made war on the Moon. She loved the Earth Prince and wanted to marry him. He loved the Moon Princess. No one was happy but the two of them even at the end." How did you explain that a calamitous war had been waged all on the feelings of two women, one of whom would have never wished that on her people or the other planet? Serenity had loved the Earth, desperately praying that the long wars with that glowing blue sphere would have ended so that she could marry the man she loved. "Everyone died. The princess, the prince, the senshi, only Queen Beryl and Queen Serenity remained. Queen Serenity was very sad that her daughter was dead." An understatement if there ever was one! If Chibiusa had felt heartrending loss at the simple comatose of her mother, she could not imagine at all what it would have felt like to watch her die. Even now the loss of her was like a bleeding wound inside her core, allowing darkness to seep through the young pink senshi's being if she would allow it.

Picking through the ruins it was obvious that she was now heading for the main building and the throne room. They would find out the most there. "There was the silver crystal, and it had the most power of all. Queen Serenity used its power and...shut Beryl away with her Chaos?" The words were awkward and unknown in English, a light shrug brushing them off. Luna could tell him if he were truly interested and Cosmos would know this story as well. It was common knowledge to them. "They were all born again, but a thing went wrong. Time is not the same. It is not mine." Pausing in front of a pair of great doors it was rather amazing to see that of all the buildings on the Moon, this one was the most intact. Apparently with the Imperium Silver Crystal resting here for so many centuries it had imparted some of its strength into the structure itself.

A hand hesitated on the massive door as Chibimoon looked up with apprehension. "That is all I know."

Lips tilted at the mention of Chaos. It was irrefutable that where there was one source of great power, the Devourer followed. Curious as to what his reaction would be, the princess lowered her hands and turned with a bit of mischief to her guardian. "One is bad. In summer there were five here." That she knew of to boot! "Nehelenia, her prince, Chronos, me...and Cosmos. Duh." A fist rapped her forehead thinking of the Senshi of Stars. Chibi hadn't ever actually seen that girl's crystal but she didn't have to.

Some things were just obvious.

Taking a deep breath the girl regarded the door and thought about time. "No, you are space. Puu is time. I miss Puu." Hands pressed on the door again and this time she leaned her weight into it, trying to open the door. It wouldn't budge.

"Can you help me please?"

The doors slid with the added weight of an adult male behind them, and for all that Kurma protested that he had no strength, Perry Westerman's body did. They swung through tracks made through countless eons of these doors opening and closing in that selfsame arc, revealing what the young princess had been here for the whole time; the throne room.

Light from the sun filtered down into the shadowy recesses of the white marble room. Where there had once been a great glass dome over the entirety of the palace had broken and shattered all around to leave glistening pieces on the floor. It was beautiful in the strange and eerie way that Crystal Tokyo had been horrific and yet glorious all throughout the time her mother had slept in its core.

Maybe that was why she loved this place so much? Chibimoon had never previously set foot in the ruins but the way her heart was drawn to them was oddly fulfilling. It was her heritage and her predestined home yes, but it was more than that. It was just hers. If everything else fell apart at least this would still be here.

For the moment Kurma was ignored as petite feet picked through the maze of fallen stonework and glass towards the dais. Carved ornately out of one piece of stone were the thrones of King and Queen, the phases of the moon behind them and where the chairs met, a perfectly carved replica of the Silver Crystal in stone. Chibimoon reverently climbed the few stairs towards them so that she could reach up and touch it hesitantly before turning and looking down the room at Kurma.

Those uncertain eyes flicked back and forth before hands dropped from feeling the carvings and the senshi sat without hesitation on the throne of the Queen. It was rather large against her tiny frame but the symbolism was not lost. Until some more vaulted, more powerful Serenity returned, this was her Moon. This was her duty. "I do not think any of us know the abyss. When I was in the dark all I saw was dark. Dark goes on but the light ends. It is scary, Kurma. But we fight it." It was what she had been born to do.

Chibimoon would be damned if she would lose another home to Chaos!

From her position on the Throne of the Moon, Chibimoon smiled. The light? There was always going to be a light here on the Moon. She had lived for almost a thousand years and her light had shone strong for all of those years. Never had she been subject to the cycle of death and rebirth that all other senshi were, not here. Serenity Usagi Tsukino was a single, unbroken light that had shone out from the future as a promise and a hope.

It was, perhaps, conceited but she had to cling to something. No mama, no papa, none of the senshi that she had known, loved, and trusted lived in this time. The only light she could count on at this time and place was her own. There was Cosmos, there was Kurma, there were so many other senshi that were trying so very hard. But they could all die. Their lives were all so very fragile. Snuffed out at any moment, so many little lights that faded into the vast fury of the Space Cauldron.

"I can be a light. I will shine as bright as I can and we can kill Chaos." The unspoken part was 'for now'. It didn't take an idiot to know that there was no fully killing Chaos. You could not fully destroy it any more than you could fully destroy the universe. It always came back. It simply was.

Putting her chin in her hand, Chibimoon smiled at Kurma. "And you will help me."